


The Alternate Diary of Seo Inwoo

by RedDiary



Category: Psychopath Diary (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Slow Burn, Suicidal Thoughts, substance abuse mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:14:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 71,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22225447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedDiary/pseuds/RedDiary
Summary: An alternate timeline in which Seo Inwoo keeps plotting murder, but some idiot keeps ruining his plans. Every damn time.Is it just a coincidence? Is it some ploy?... Is it fate?A silly exercise (that turned much more serious along the way) in how to get these two happily(?!?) together while staying true to the characters as much as possible.
Relationships: Seo Inwoo/Yook Dongsik
Comments: 275
Kudos: 754





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't recommend getting into a relationship with someone who tries to kill you, unless you're fictional.

**2011**

With slightly shaking hands Seo Inwoo mixed the crushed sleeping pills into the energy drink. From the reflection in the window, he could see the girl behind the cash register stare out with a tired expression. Pitiable creature maybe, but it wasn’t his fault she had crossed paths with him on a bad day. Besides, in the larger scheme of things, it was no loss. Someone like that was never going to amount to anything. Surely it was more like a favor to put an end to that useless existence. He swirled the liquid around in the small bottle, watching the white dust dissolve. The only other customer in the store had left moments ago. Almost ready. Now…

The door of the store was pushed open, and a scruffy-looking guy wearing round glasses staggered in, scrunching a bagel in his hand and coughing furiously. He made his way to Inwoo, swept the bottle from his hand and gulped the drink down.

“Sorry,” he croaked, slamming the empty bottle down on the table. He beat his chest with his fist. “I was... choking. I’ll buy you another one.”

Still coughing, he walked towards the drink shelf. Inwoo stared at the empty bottle transfixed. Oh, _hell_. He picked up the bottle and stuffed it into his pocket, hurrying out of the store. No one had seen him give the drink to the guy, surely. He hadn’t actually done so, anyway. Whatever happened to the guy from here on was not in any way connected to him.

“Hey, wait!”

Inwoo glanced back. The idiot was rushing after him, holding two bottles. Inwoo hastened his steps and pretended he didn’t hear.

“Your drink! Hey!”

There was a loud crash and Inwoo spun around, seeing the idiot guy sprawled on the pavement, surrounded by a scattered stack of crates he had knocked over. With his glasses askew, he struggled to get back up, but couldn’t find enough balance to even get to his knees. 

A group of old men had emerged from behind the corner, alerted by the noise.

“What’s the matter with him?” one of them asked. “Should we call an ambulance? Or the police?”

“Isn’t he just drunk?”

The guy on the ground waved the bottles he was still holding towards Inwoo. He sure was persistent.

“Your drink,” he said breathlessly.

The group of men turned to look at Inwoo.

“Is he your friend?”

Inwoo contemplated just turning and walking away, but if this lot called the police, they might realize the idiot wasn’t just drunk. Someone might wonder how he got drugged, and now these men had seen Inwoo. He hurried over, took the bottles from the guy’s hands and helped him up.

“He had too much to drink,” he said, flashing a bright smile to the men. “I’ll just take him home.”

“I didn’t drink… whoa…” Supported by Inwoo, the guy held his head, swaying in place.

The men turned away, shaking their heads, and Inwoo dragged the staggering guy by the arm towards his car.

He’d ditch him on some bus stop after he passed out. Plop a bottle of liquor in his hand, and soak his clothes in it, too. Then no one would believe any claims he’d not been drinking.

“What’s wrong… with me?” the guy said, struggling to keep up with Inwoo’s fast pace. “I didn’t drink…”

“Really? How strange,” Inwoo said, holding him steady by the arm. He opened the door of his car. “You should sit down, you don’t look too good.” The guy nodded and climbed in. Inwoo slammed the door shut after him. The day just kept getting worse.

Inwoo got into the car and turned to look at his unwanted passenger. The guy had curled up on the passenger’s seat, and seemed to already be asleep. He was hugging his backpack tightly, breathing slowly, and mumbled something. Inwoo leaned closer to listen.

“Mom…”

The corner of Inwoo’s mouth twitched. He leaned back in contempt and drummed his fingers against the wheel. On the other hand, now he had this unlucky idiot at his mercy. He chuckled. He could just drop him off a bridge or something. No, too boring. He’d be out for a while, in that time he could surely think of something. Something _terribly_ fun…

“Hey!”

Someone knocked on the window of the car. Inwoo rolled the window down. One of the men from before handed him a cell phone.

“Seems he dropped this,” the man said. “His sister is calling. I told her he’s drunk as a badger.”

Hesitantly Inwoo took the phone. He rolled the window back up as the man walked away.

“Hello?”

“Oh hi, so, you’re with our Dongsik?” the female voice on the phone said.

“Yes.”

“And you’re in Gwangju?”

“… yes.”

“Right, so…” The woman laughed. “I guess it’s a bit much to ask you’d get him back to Seoul, so maybe you could drop him off at a police station, or somewhere he’ll be safe.”

Inwoo glared at the sleeping guy. So now not only had Inwoo been seen with him, but his family also knew he had taken him into his car. If something happened to this accursed idiot now, it’d be hard to claim he’d had nothing to do with it.

“Actually,” he said, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice, “I need to return to Seoul myself, so I’ll just bring him home. What’s the address?” No doubt his family was at least stupid enough to not be able to tell apart being drunk and being drugged.

“You would?” the woman said. “That’s so very kind of you. Thank you.”

After receiving the address he hung up. Kind? He clutched the phone angrily in his hand. How was it that nothing was going his way today? He took a few deep breaths to calm down. At any rate, it was true that he had best return to Seoul. This miserable place had turned out to be one big waste of time.

He slipped the phone into the sleeping guy’s pocket, then after a moment’s consideration, removed the guy’s glasses that were almost falling off anyway, and folded them into his pocket, too. He leaned over and attached the seat belt for the guy, wrapping him and his backpack into one neat package. Idiot package. The guy again mumbled something in his sleep and smiled contently. Smiling like that, with his white coat and his irritating cloud of curly hair, he looked kind of like an angel. Inwoo turned his eyes away. _Disgusting_. He’d like nothing more than to kick him off the roof of the tallest building he could find. See how he’d ruin his plans then.

“Dongsik,” Inwoo said, sneering as he started the car. “What a stupid name. I don’t know if you’re tremendously lucky or unlucky, but you’d damned best hope after tonight I never see you again.”


	2. Chapter 2

**2019 - July**

Inwoo stood in a shaded corner of an alley, dressed in a dark, hooded coat despite the warmth of the summer night. The cover offered by the coat was necessary. He was a hunter waiting for his prey.

The past year had been stressful. His father had been favoring his idiot of a brother more and more openly, rubbing it in his face that everything Inwoo had worked hard for, could on a whim be handed over to that brat Jihoon who couldn’t even manage a playground without setting it on fire.

Of course Inwoo wasn’t going to just take it. He was going to take back what was his. But weeding Jihoon out of his company would be a delicate task. It needed to be done in a way that didn’t implicate him. His father would suspect him, no matter what, but as long as he could prove nothing it didn’t matter.

But the urge to just shove his brother through the window of his office was strong, and Inwoo had needed to seek a different outlet for his frustration. A string of beautiful murders disguised as suicides. The lives of these people, they were on his father. He would tell him that, one day, when the old man was seconds away from drawing his last breath.

Only it wasn’t working out so far. Starting from August of the previous year, four times Inwoo had picked a target and thought up a plan, and each four times things had gone wrong. No lives had been added to the list to weigh on his father’s dying conscience.

The most bizarre incident had been back in April, when a pair of dogs had somehow gotten loose in the garden of the old woman he had planned to kill. The noise had woken up the neighbors, the police had been called, and eventually the old woman had fainted and been taken to the hospital. Inwoo might have thought he was cursed, if he believed in that sort of thing.

Of course he didn’t. It was all about mastering his own mind. And it wasn’t that he couldn’t have tried again after failing the first time, he just felt it was beneath him to waste any more time on those people. They were irrelevant. Insignificant. It was all about the perfect plan.

And this time it was going to work. Weeks had been spent figuring out the fine details. The time, the location, the people. Furthermore, he was not going to get nervous about the first unexpected thing that happened. Not even wild dogs would unnerve him. That had been the flaw in his previous plans, inability to adapt to the unexpected. This time he would stay in control.

And he was, up until he heard the fire alarm go off inside the factory behind him. Inwoo’s intended target showed up at that moment, and instead of heading down the expected route where Inwoo was waiting, he ran towards the factory entrance.

Inwoo cursed silently. A fire was going to keep things noisy and unpredictable for too long. It wasn't worth it to linger around to see if he could still carry out his plan. Perhaps this was the universe encouraging him to let Jihoon test the hardiness of his office windows.

Inwoo was about to leave when he heard footsteps. He retreated further back into the shadow, and pulled the hood of his coat down over his eyes. A few seconds later someone came walking from the other end of the alley. The person, dressed in a black hoodie, walked past Inwoo without seeing him, and stopped at the cover of the chain fence by the street. He pulled his hood back a bit, and standing on his toes seemed to be trying to peer at what was happening on the street in front of the factory. A police car drove past, and for a moment he turned back to hide from it, facing Inwoo.

Inwoo froze as he saw the face.

It _couldn’t_ be.

But even without the glasses, he recognized him. The same face that had bothered him the long drive from Gwangju. Same stupid poodle hair. Irritation that was impossible to forget even though years had passed since.

“Dongsik?” 

Inwoo realized he’d said the name out loud. Hopefully too quietly to be heard over the sound of the fire alarm, but Dongsik seemed startled and glanced back along the alley. Then he pulled his hood back up, and stepped on to the street. As he did so, his shoelace got caught in the chain fence and he tripped, ending up flat on his face on the ground.

Inwoo rolled his eyes. Now he knew for sure it was Dongsik. He cringed as he watched him get up, free his shoelace from the fence and then limp away along the street.

Inwoo waited for a moment and then took off his coat. Without it, he would look less suspicious. He walked out to the street and looked around. There was no sign of Dongsik anymore. Just what had he been doing there, skulking around like he was up to no good? Did he have something to do with the fire alarm? But unless he’d scaled the wall, he would have been outside the factory, not inside.

Inwoo shook his head. He was being irrational. His mind wanted to think it was all connected, that somehow Dongsik had once again arrived to ruin his plan. But there was no reason to think that. Coincidences happened. Unexpectedly running into people you’d met years ago happened. He was only looking for someone to blame for his plan going wrong.

Inwoo walked to his car, which he had left a few streets away. He was curious about what was going on at the factory, but it was perhaps better to have someone else look into it than be seen himself on the scene. Not that he had done anything wrong. Yet.

***

“There was no fire,” Miss Jo told Inwoo over the phone the next morning. “It was just a smoke bomb.”

“How did that happen?”

“Possibly one of the workers did it. When the police arrived, they witnessed the factory foreman being violent towards one of the workers. Now multiple workers are pressing charges against him. It appears the fire alarm served the purpose of revealing the inhumane treatment going on there.” She paused. “But sir, why did you ask me to look into this? Goseong Chemical is not on our—”

“And now they won’t be. Good work.”

“There’s one other thing. It sounds like your brother got in trouble with the police again early this morning.”

“Oh, did he?” Inwoo laughed. “Well, you know what to do.”

The news cheered him up. Whatever Jihoon had done this time would surely get swept under the rug. Within an hour, two at most, his father would be calling the family together to sort it out. And Inwoo would promise to do his absolute best to help bail his precious brother out of the trouble. It was how it should be. He was family after all. Rather than actually have him in legal trouble, it was much sweeter to keep the threat of it as a tight leash around his neck. And in time Inwoo would have enough proof of Jihoon’s transgressions to herd the board of directors into the fold like the sheep they were. Then even his father could do nothing to push the company into Jihoon’s hands.

The events at the factory where an odd coincidence, but perhaps not entirely unexpected. Inwoo had know about the ongoing violence. It had been part of his plan to make it seem like the factory worker took his own life for that very reason. With that, the violence would have come to light anyway. Of course Inwoo did not care about that, beyond it serving as a convenient smokescreen. 

Good of Jihoon to mess up and improve his mood, otherwise he might have gotten annoyed at his plans falling through once again. He was looking forward to seeing his brother squirm in front of his father, down on his knees.

Meanwhile, Inwoo was going to indulge in a bit of curiosity.

He stepped out of his car and looked up and down the street. It was about here that he had left Dongsik that night years ago, in the care of his sister. Inwoo had been too eager to get as far away as possible as fast as possible to pay attention exactly where they had gone from here. Of course, much time had passed since. There was no telling if they even lived around here anymore. Nonetheless, he was going to have a look around.

There was nothing much to the place. A few plain-looking shops, a restaurant. Everything looked rather dismal. There were a few people around, but Inwoo didn’t think it was a good idea to just go around asking if a poodle-hair named Dongsik lived around here. Maybe it had been a foolish idea to come here at all, but he was just killing time until the inevitable family confrontation. 

He turned to look at the restaurant behind him. Mr Yook’s Meat Republic? Everything here was so low-class. He was about to open the door of the restaurant when it was pushed open, and Inwoo was almost hit by both the door and the person rushing out.

And of course it was Dongsik. This guy was a hazard.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Dongsik said, turning around. “Sorry. Sorry.”

There was no sign he recognized Inwoo. That was to be expected. Why would he remember, when he had been asleep most of the time?

After bowing apologetically more times than was necessary, he walked away. Inwoo waited for a moment, then looking as casual and inconspicuous as he could, he walked after him.

For about quarter of an hour Inwoo followed Dongsik as he walked along the street. Though he had been in such a rush to leave the restaurant, Dongsik seemed to now have time to be pointlessly kind to almost everyone he passed. It was tiresome to watch.

Inwoo watched him even pick up a fallen scarf, and with a bright smile return it to a pair of middle-aged women. They glanced back at Dongsik as they walked away, giggling like schoolgirls.

“Such a handsome young man.”

Inwoo scoffed. This guy? He watched as Dongsik stopped to coo at some old man’s dog.

_Well…_ Inwoo tilted his head thoughtfully. 

Maybe if he dressed better. And didn’t slouch like he was trying to take up the least possible amount of space. He had that kind of sweet and innocent face that had its appeal.

Inwoo turned away.

_To some people._

He was distracted by his phone chiming. As expected, he was told to come home for a family meeting.

When he glanced back again, Dongsik had vanished. For a moment he looked around to see if he could figure out where he had gone, but it might have been any of the small alleys lined with houses. Inwoo shrugged and walked back to his car.

It didn’t matter. Though Dongsik’s behavior the previous night had been suspicious, who could guess what he had been up to. Rescuing kittens. Playing detective. Something silly and pointless. It wasn’t worth thinking about further.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: being flippant about suicide

**2019 - September**

Inwoo sat in his office, rubbing his temples with his fingers. Jihoon had fucked up, not that he ever did anything else. But this time he wasn’t just getting himself in trouble, he was making the whole company look bad. The only bright side was that there was a chance Inwoo could make the situation explode on Jihoon’s face in a way that would shake up his position. Damage control for the company could come later.

“He’s going to push the blame on someone, right? Who?”

“The employee who submitted the document,” Miss Jo said, handing him the folder containing the personnel file.

“I can’t let him get away with that,” Inwoo said. “Talk to this employee and…”

He stared at the file.

_What?_

“Is something wrong?” Miss Jo asked.

Inwoo dropped the file on the desk as if it had burned his hand. He stood up from his chair and walked over to the window. Slowly he turned back towards the desk, and leaned against the windowsill, staring at the file from the distance as if it was about to bounce on him.

“This guy,” he said. “Since when has he worked here?”

Miss Jo reached out to pick up the file, but Inwoo interrupted her, waving his hand.

“Never mind. Leave that. Just go and… figure out how to handle it.”

After she left, Inwoo walked back to the desk and picked up the file.

“Dongsik… Yook Dongsik. How the hell are you here?”

And the file said he had already been working in the company for a while. How had Inwoo not known? Not that he cared to know the low-level employees, but… coincidence? It was getting hard to believe that. And yet what else could it be? There was no plausible explanation.

But whenever Dongsik appeared, things went wrong. It was like he existed just to torment him. Inwoo set the file facing downward on the desk so he wouldn’t have to look at it. His headache was getting worse.

***

After leaving his office late that night, Inwoo parked his car outside the construction site of their new office building. He frowned at the sight of a homeless man pushing a cart along the street. Someone really ought to clean up rabble like that from the neighborhood. Their new building shouldn’t be tarnished by useless trash. Including Jihoon. Inwoo had come here to remind himself that by the time the new building was finished, he would have Jihoon crushed under his heel. That was the dream. His office in the new building would never have Jihoon sitting in it. Ever. Nothing and no one was allowed to ruin his plans now.

From the side-view mirror of his car, he saw someone walking in his direction across the street. A passerby who wouldn’t have caught his attention if it wasn’t for that cloud of curly hair. Inwoo closed his eyes and sighed. Was he everywhere now?

He opened his eyes and leaned to the side to get a better look. Judging from the way Dongsik hung his head and dragged his feet, he was already aware of the situation Jihoon had put him in. It was nice to see him suffer, but this kind of quiet, dejected suffering wasn’t much fun to look at. Two out of three times Inwoo had seen him, he had fallen on his face. Figuratively, the situation with Jihoon counted as falling on his face, too, so that made it three out of four.

“Come on,” Inwoo said. “At least amuse me a little. Make it four out of five. Fall.”

Dongsik walked past his car and stopped to look at the construction site. Then he climbed over the low fence surrounding the site and vanished inside.

Why would he go there? Inwoo’s eyes followed the wall of the building up to the open roof. Someone who was possibly at the end of their rope. On an empty construction site in the middle of the night. Inwoo groaned.

“No, not that kind of fall!”

Just as he had been thinking that his plans were not to be ruined, Dongsik appeared determined to do exactly that. Inwoo got out of his car, slammed the door shut, and walked after Dongsik. He really did not want to, but he needed to stop him. First, he needed him alive to be useful against Jihoon. Second, employee suicide would hurt the company’s reputation. And third, if anyone were to die on his building, it should be by Inwoo’s own hand.

Exactly as he had thought, he heard Dongsik climb up the stairwell. Inwoo considered if he should just shout at him to come down, but he wasn’t sure how he would react. He might even fling himself down the stairs if he was alerted. It was probably best to just follow him and handle the situation when he caught up with him.

Somehow, once again, he had to go out of his way to keep Dongsik safe. He gritted his teeth as he headed to the stairs. Was this some weird karma? Why did this guy keep getting entangled in his life?

When he reached the roof, he saw Dongsik standing on top of a pile of construction materials. Inwoo wasn’t quite sure what to do. Dongsik did not seem to be sure what he was doing either, but the situation was precarious. Inwoo suspected he shouldn’t make him agitated. And knowing Dongsik, it was best to handle this fast before he just tripped on his own feet and stumbled over the edge.

There was probably something appropriate to say in the situation. Some soothing, persuasive, cliche words. Value your life no matter how worthless it is?

_Oh, to hell with all that._

Inwoo walked very quietly across the roof and swiftly leaped on top of the pile next to Dongsik. He caught Dongsik by the back of the collar of his coat and pulled him backward.

“Enjoying the view?” he asked.

“Wha?” Dongsik coughed, his throat strained against his collar.

“Oh, were you going to jump?” Inwoo said. “Should I help?”

He pushed Dongsik forwards until his feet were almost over the edge. He leaned forward to look down.

“Falling from this height will get quite messy. And you could hit that fence rather than the ground. That might hurt. Slow, agonizing suffering instead of a quick death.” He turned to look at Dongsik’s horrified face. “Do you want to try?”

“N-no!”

“Good.”

Inwoo dragged Dongsik backward and sent him tumbling down back to the roof. Dongsik fell on his knees, coughing. Inwoo leaped down from the pile. He pulled Dongsik up to his feet again by the collar of his coat and pushed him against a stack of concrete slabs. Dongsik looked at him with wide, startled eyes.

“Listen,” Inwoo snarled. “If you die here, you’re playing straight into Jihoon’s hand. You will look guilty, and no one is going to defend you. Do you want that? Never mind, I don’t care what you want. I don’t care if you want to live or die or ruin yourself, you’re not dying until I give you a permission.”

He paused to take a breath.

“Got that?”

Dongsik nodded slowly.

Inwoo let go of his coat and backed away a few steps. Dongsik slid to sit down and lowered his head. Now that the immediate danger was over, Inwoo was not sure how to proceed. Should he just leave him sitting there? That was probably a bad idea.

“Get up,” he said. Dongsik didn’t move.

“Do I have the drag you all the way down?”

Dongsik made a noise that sounded somewhere halfway between and sob and a snort. Was he crying? Laughing? Possibly both. He got up to his feet, and without sparing even a glance at Inwoo, walked across the roof to the stairs.

Some degree of regret was creeping into Inwoo’s mind as he followed Dongsik a few steps behind. From the way Dongsik walked now, he seemed irritated, if not outright angry. Perhaps it would have been better to stick to sweet, honeyed words, and promises that Inwoo would help him against Jihoon. He needed Dongsik to side with him, after all. He was usually flawless at keeping up the calm and polite mask. Why did this idiot make his blood boil so easily?

Down on the street, Inwoo faced again the same question: now what? Should he take him home? Hospital? The police?

Dongsik stood at the edge of the street with his back to him. Inwoo watched him, frowning. He wasn’t thinking of jumping in front of a car, was he? Inwoo reached out and clutched the sleeve of his coat, pulling him backward a step. Dongsik obeyed passively but did not react otherwise.

It occurred to Inwoo to wonder if Dongsik even knew who he was. Surely he had to know, working in his company, and yet… they had never interacted, and Dongsik probably wouldn’t expect someone like him to show up to stop him from jumping to his death. Because that _was_ absurd. In any case, it seemed a bit backward to introduce himself now. Inwoo felt his headache start again. Dongsik was already turning everything into a mess without barely even doing anything, and Inwoo was supposed to bet his plans on this guy. Right now, he wanted him out of his sight, and fast.

Almost as if answering the silent plea, a police patrol car driving past stopped in front of them.

Considering how rough he had been with Dongsik up on the roof, Inwoo felt uneasy, but leaving a suicidal person in the care of the police seemed like a sensible idea. And what was Dongsik going to tell them, anyway? Accuse him of saving his life? Surely between a suicidal office worker and a superior who went out of his way to save his life, Inwoo had more credibility. If it came to that, he could say he had acted rashly out of fear for Dongsik’s safety.

Inwoo leaned down to greet the female police officer who opened the window.

“Officer, this guy mmmph-”

Dongsik clasped his hand over Inwoo’s mouth, pulling him away from the car.

“Hi,” Dongsik said cheerfully. He drew his hand away and stepped in front of Inwoo without giving him a chance to speak again. “Are you done with your patrol shift? Give me a ride home.” He did not wait for a reply, just opened the rear door of the car and got in. The police officer gave Inwoo a puzzled glance, but then merely nodded him a polite greeting, and they drove off.

Inwoo watched them go in stunned silence. Nothing with Dongsik went as one might expect. Did he just treat the police as his personal taxi? At least Inwoo was now free of him, but was it safe to just leave him be? Maybe he had been reluctant to let the police know what was going on because he was planning to try again.

Inwoo got into his car and took out his phone. He looked up Dongsik’s address from the company’s employee records. Hopefully home was really where he was going.

He sighed. What was he even doing? Running around after this annoying guy when he could be doing countless much better things. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was because of Jihoon. It was because of the company. It was an investment that had damn better pay off. For the grand dream of taking back what was his, what was some effort spent to look after Dongsik? If that’s what it took, it was nothing. No matter how much Dongsik grated his nerves.

Feeling back in control, he started his car. He would just check that Dongsik wouldn’t trample all over Inwoo’s efforts.

When he arrived at the address, he saw the police car parked there, with Dongsik and two police officers standing outside. They seemed to be chatting in a relaxed way, about what, Inwoo couldn’t guess. He watched them for a moment and then turned his car around. Dongsik appeared to not have any more desperate ideas, though who could say for sure. But Inwoo definitely wasn’t going to keep watch all night.

“Don’t you dare die,” he said, glancing at them in the rear-view mirror as he drove away, “or I’ll…”

Well, saying he’d kill him didn’t really work in this case, did it? That was the problem. If he died, Inwoo wouldn’t even get a chance for revenge. How annoying.


	4. Chapter 4

Inwoo was relieved to hear that Dongsik showed up to work the following day. He was less thrilled about the fact that for the next few days Dongsik wouldn’t budge in either direction. He wasn’t admitting responsibility for the mess Jihoon had made, but neither was he saying anything to point the blame on anyone else. Inwoo couldn’t tell if this was a tactic to simply annoy the hell out of everyone, or if there was more to it.

The only upside to the delay was that Jihoon was livid and kept throwing constant tantrums, making himself even more hated by everyone in the office. But if the situation went on for too long, Inwoo risked losing his opportunity to make it all work in his favor. It seemed he had no choice but to have a talk with Dongsik, no matter how much he hated the thought of coming face to face with him again.

Trying to arrange an accidental meeting that didn’t look too much like an obvious intervention turned out to be more difficult than expected. Somehow Dongsik seemed to vanish just as he managed to spot him. But Inwoo wasn’t going to let any prey keep evading him on his own hunting ground. After giving some thought to where Dongsik might escape to, he finally managed to corner him on the rooftop terrace.

Dongsik was leaning on the railing, hanging his head between his arms. Inwoo walked over slowly, considering the best course of action. If Dongsik had been avoiding him on purpose, the reason had to be their encounter at the construction site. It wasn’t a topic Inwoo wanted to waste time talking about either. Perhaps it was best to just not bring it up at all. That might put Dongsik at ease, too.

Dongsik looked up when he heard him approach, then immediately turned away, wincing. It seemed he really had been avoiding Inwoo on purpose. He turned his back to Inwoo as if he was planning to escape in the other direction.

_“Stop.”_

Dongsik sighed and turned back slowly. He didn’t look at Inwoo, but he didn’t seem to be planning to run away anymore, either. The audacity of his behavior should have earned him a good scolding, if not worse, but Inwoo had decided that no matter what, he would stay in control of his emotions this time. He would show Dongsik that unlike Jihoon’s bullying tactics, Inwoo dealt with situations with class and grace. Even Dongsik had to have enough sense in his head to understand which one was the better choice for him.

Inwoo leaned casually on the railing, forced every ounce of nice and friendly he could manage to his face, and smiled.

“You know, it would be in your best interest to just follow the audit team’s suggestions,” he said. It was a bit more direct approach than he would normally start with, but he had no patience to test if Dongsik could follow subtle hints.

“Is that so,” Dongsik said. Although his tone was pleasant enough, Inwoo was almost certain he could hear a hint of veiled contempt underneath. That seemed odd. Even if Inwoo hadn’t been gentle, he had still saved his life. But the reason for his grudge was something to sort out later. For now, Inwoo just needed to make him obey.

“Naturally, if you do something that benefits the company, that will benefit you,” he said.

“Wow,” Dongsik said, “it almost sounds like I’m very valuable.”

Inwoo drummed his fingers against the railing. Evidently what Dongsik had been waiting for, was for someone to make the situation profitable for him. That was something Inwoo could appreciate in theory, but he didn't like having to give up something of his to gain what already should be his. Still, given that the best Jihoon was likely to offer was cash, perhaps Inwoo could give Dongsik something more permanent that didn’t really cost him anything.

“I believe you’ve worked long enough in your current position to be considered for a promotion.”

Dongsik was quiet for a moment, staring off into the distance, seeming to weigh his options.

“So, if you get what you want, I’ll get promoted,” he said eventually. “Is that it?”

Inwoo was taken aback by his directness. Did he really think this was the way to negotiate with his superiors? The unexpected boldness was admittedly intriguing, but even so, he should know his place. If getting rid of Jihoon wasn’t more urgently important, Inwoo would never have let this slide.

“Let’s say it is,” he said.

“I will think about it, I guess.”

Dongsik seemed to decide the conversation was over and walked away. Inwoo glared at his back. He had damned better choose to follow his lead, and fast. If Inwoo had been chasing after him and tolerating that insolent attitude for nothing, there would be hell to pay. Once Jihoon was out of the way, he would definitely beat some respect into this guy.

But with class. And grace.

***

In his mind, Inwoo had mapped out many different ways the situation could get resolved, but what actually happened was something he would never have even dreamed of.

The first sign that things were about to get very interesting was Dongsik leaving the office that night. Something had made him so angry he didn’t even notice Inwoo was standing not far off when he stormed out of the building. This wasn’t at all like his usual goofy self. He looked fierce and determined, wrapped in a cold fury that Inwoo had to admit quite suited him. It was almost magnetic.

For a moment Dongsik stood outside, fuming quietly, clutching his phone in his hand. Then he made a phone call.

“Chilsung, I need a favor.”

That was all Inwoo got to hear before Dongsik walked away.

Not even an hour had passed when Miss Jo informed Inwoo that there was a weird anonymous post on the company bulletin board. It claimed that a high-level executive was attempting to frame an employee, and had subjected a female employee to sexual harassment to do so. Even though the post mentioned no names, it was specific enough to make it obvious it was about Jihoon. Inwoo knew the post would get taken down quite fast, but not before rumors started to spread. Still, as amusing as it was, if Dongsik was behind it he would gain nothing from it other than an ever worse retaliation from Jihoon. It was a pointless move, but Inwoo didn’t really mind. Maybe Dongsik needed to act out the pent up grudge before doing the sensible thing.

The worse retaliation from Jihoon didn’t take more than an hour to happen, either. Jihoon was terrible at picking reliable people to work for him, and Inwoo had bought the loyalty of several of them over the years. He didn’t ask for much, just that they kept him in the loop of what Jihoon was up to, and so that night when Jihoon sent some thugs to rough Dongsik up, Inwoo heard about it right away.

Even though Inwoo had a vested interest in keeping Dongsik safe, this time he did nothing. Jihoon wouldn’t be stupid enough to let his cronies cause any serious harm. The point was just to make Dongsik scared. And since Dongsik had started a petty war instead of just doing what Inwoo had told him to do, he deserved to suffer a bit. Maybe this would knock enough sense into his head that he would obediently come crawling to Inwoo in the morning.

But as morning came, it was Jihoon who was in the hospital. According to Jihoon’s distressed rambling, he had almost been run over by a car when he was running from a gang he was certain had tried to kill him. According to the police, he had been found on the street very drunk. They were investigating the possibility of a hit-and-run based on Jihoon’s statement, but they seemed to think the part about the gang was just drunken delusions.

Inwoo contacted the informant who had told him what Jihoon had been up to, but the man was reluctant to talk. Eventually, he said they had acted on an allegiance that was more important than money, and that was it. Inwoo ended the phone call more puzzled than before. Allegiance to who? It definitely couldn’t be to Dongsik.

Seeing Jihoon in that state would have been very pleasing if it wasn’t for the annoying fact that his father seemed to immediately suspect Inwoo had had something to do with it. With gritted teeth, Inwoo said he would get to the bottom of the incident, pretending not to notice the veiled accusations. As if Jihoon would have ended up as just scared, had Inwoo really been behind this. If one day he finally chose to act, they wouldn't be able to find even a piece of Jihoon afterward, that was certain.

Inwoo left the hospital determined to strangle Dongsik for how he had caused the situation to spiral out of control. But the strange chain of events had not ended yet. A while later, as Inwoo arrived at the office, a police officer was talking to the security guard in the lobby.

“Officer Shim Bokyung,” she said, showing her ID to the security guard, “I was told—”

An angry shriek echoed through the lobby. Inwoo turned to see a crowd gathering by the main entrance. The police officer was quickly making her way through the crowd. Inwoo circled around the crowd to get a glimpse of the amusing sight of Jihoon in his hospital pajamas attacking Dongsik with his crutches. The police officer joined another one who was trying to drag Jihoon away from Dongsik.

All thoughts of strangling Dongsik faded from Inwoo’s mind. He didn’t really even care what was going on anymore. All he needed to know was that Jihoon was rapidly digging himself into a hole he wouldn’t soon be able to climb out of. It was beautiful to watch.

The crowd in the lobby was like vultures flocking to an entertaining scene, and a video of the incident was posted to social media in no time. Naturally, it got taken down almost just as fast, and the situation was smoothed over with the media, but by then everyone in the company already knew what had happened.

The natural outcome was that Jihoon had to take a sudden, extended break for health reasons, and Inwoo was to take over his position in the interim. Inwoo could barely believe it. In a matter of just over 12 hours, Jihoon had come crashing down, and everything fell beautifully in place in a way that benefited him.

And at the very center of it, Dongsik was acting like he had no clue how things had turned out like this.


	5. Chapter 5

**2019 - October**

Two weeks had passed since Jihoon’s spectacular downfall, and Inwoo was greeted with bright and happy smiles as he arrived at the office. It wasn’t hard to be a better boss than Jihoon, but Inwoo had still made extra effort to be the absolute best and friendliest, and the most efficient. Whether it was the employees or the board of directors, no one would want Jihoon to come back. This was Inwoo’s kingdom now, and it would stay that way.

After enduring a round of perfectly faked sincerity in the lobby, Inwoo stepped into the elevator, relishing the moment of peace. He glared at the floor number display as if he could force it to slow down with the sheer force of his will. In his kingdom, everything should obey him. And he needed time to prepare to tackle the one and only obstacle in the perfect takeover plan, which was Dongsik, who just didn’t seem to warm up.

There was nothing out of line with Dongsik’s behavior, as such. On the surface, he was all politeness and good manners. But beyond that, all Inwoo’s attempts to get on friendly terms with him were repeatedly met by an invisible wall. Inwoo had given Dongsik the promotion to assistant manager, even if it was debatable whether their agreement held in the specific circumstances Jihoon had been taken down. Inwoo had even tried to offer Dongsik opportunities to get his foot in the circles of the big players in stock trading, but oddly enough, Dongsik had rejected them all.

Before, Inwoo had never doubted that Dongsik really was as dumb and clueless as he looked, but now he was certain there was more to him than was evident on the surface. He didn’t know for sure exactly what had happened between Dongsik and Jihoon, as Jihoon’s ramblings made very little sense, and Dongsik naturally was not talking. But the strange way the sequence of events had played out had to mean that it had all been a clever and carefully orchestrated plan.

If getting his life entangled with Dongsik’s had at first seemed like misfortune, now seemed the opposite. It was not luck, though. Inwoo didn’t believe in luck. The outcome was something Inwoo had made happen with his own efforts of keeping Dongsik safe, even if he had not known how it would turn out. Perhaps it had been pure intuition. Somehow he had sensed that Dongsik would turn out to be much more interesting and useful than it seemed. That had to be it.

Now, he was determined to turn Dongsik into an ally. Dongsik's method for dealing with Jihoon had been reckless, but even as little as Inwoo knew about what had happened, it all seemed exhilarating and immensely satisfying, and it had gotten the job done with precision. And the appeal was even stronger precisely because that kind of recklessness was something Inwoo would never resort to. If he could influence Dongsik to get things done in that wild way of his, he wouldn’t even need to get his own hands dirty. And who would suspect the calm and systematic Inwoo had anything to do with methods like that? Not only was it an excellent tactic, it was also the perfect alibi.

But, as it was, with Dongsik stubbornly and insolently keeping his distance, they seemed to just be stuck in a frustrating game of cat and mouse.

Stepping out of the elevator, Inwoo saw his mouse prey walk towards him along the office hallway. He sighed and prepared himself for another friendly chat that was likely to be fruitless. But as Dongsik bowed him a hurried greeting and then tried to escape as fast as he could, Inwoo noticed a nasty cut in the corner of his mouth.

“Wait.”

Dongsik stopped and reluctantly turned to face him. Inwoo stepped closer and lifted Dongsik’s chin with his finger to get a better look at his face. It wasn’t just his lip, but almost the entire left side of his face was covered in a green and purple bruise.

“What happened to you?”

“I… fell,” Dongsik said, stepping sideways and shrinking away from Inwoo’s hand.

“On what?”

Dongsik thought about the answer for a second too long to seem sincere.

“A brick wall,” he said.

Inwoo frowned. Even knowing Dongsik’s talent for falling, this was a bit excessive. This brick wall had to have been made of fists, as it was quite obvious he had been beaten up. Dongsik, who apparently could make a gang of thugs abandon Jihoon and his money. Was he getting in trouble or making trouble?

“It’s nothing, really,” Dongsik said with a bright smile before Inwoo could ask any more questions. “I should get back to work.”

He hurried away, and Inwoo made no effort to stop him. It was obvious Dongsik wasn’t willing to talk. Walking to his own office, Inwoo ordered his secretary to buy whatever was best for treating bruises and bring it to Dongsik. A while later the secretary informed him that Dongsik had refused it all, saying he already had everything he needed.

Inwoo leaned on his desk, trying to remain calm.

Why couldn’t this mouse just surrender?

***

Aiming for yet another chance to ensnare the tiresome mouse, Inwoo went along to a team dinner with all the employees. Within 30 minutes he regretted it, as Dongsik hadn’t shown up. Inwoo tried not to look like he was bored out of his mind, but it was getting harder and harder to endure all the inane small talk.

This was definitely the last time he would bother with this pointless socializing for a while. Other than Dongsik, everyone else was already eating from his hand. There was no need to spend this much effort to keep feeding them. If he had to suffer through this excruciating boredom one more time without gaining anything from it, he might just kill everyone.

And then he would have to find new employees and somehow explain how an entire team got accidentally poisoned. Inwoo swirled the remnants of his drink around in his glass.

_Or went mad and stabbed each other. Or drowned in a tragic boat accident…_

Fortunately for his team, Dongsik arrived just as Inwoo was starting to think of the possibility of arranging a company river cruise. Dongsik didn’t give any clear explanation for why he had been late, just something vague about having things to sort out. His bruised face was still just the same, but at least it seemed he hadn’t gained any new injuries from whatever had kept him. Inwoo had checked up on Jihoon earlier, and judging by the fact that Jihoon’s bad mood had remained unchanged for the past week, it wasn’t him who had gotten Dongsik in trouble this time. Inwoo was dying to find out what else Dongsik was hiding.

Dongsik’s fellow assistant manager, Park Jaeho, made room for him to sit down. This guy always acted so friendly with him, though Inwoo knew very well he had been snuggly in Jihoon’s pocket, and the first in line to throw Dongsik under the bus when things had gone wrong. He was just the kind of weasel who was easy to manipulate, and Inwoo wondered if he might be useful for uncovering Dongsik’s secrets, but he seemed to be far too stupid to really know anything of value.

The small talk around the table had somehow turned to families and spouses and relationships, as if these people just couldn’t come up with a topic more boring. The two female members of Dongsik’s team were whispering about something to each other, then the younger one became very interested in the stain on the table in front of her, while the older one turned to Dongsik.

“What about you, Dongsik?” she asked. “Do you have a girlfriend?”

Inwoo clenched his jaw, setting his glass down on the table with more force than necessary. It was obvious she was trying to play matchmaker. Too bad implementing a policy banning workplace romances didn’t fit the image of a perfectly nice boss Inwoo was trying to cultivate. If he had to watch them start flirting in the office, he would _definitely_ kill someone.

“Oh, I… I don’t have time to think about such things right now,” Dongsik said, and Inwoo relaxed. Clearly there was little danger of any romance happening there. Whether Dongsik was purposefully evading the question, or really meant what he said, it was certain he wasn’t interested.

“Hold on,” Jaeho said, “the other night when we were drinking you said… what was it?”

“Wh-what?” Dongsik seemed suddenly very flustered but tried to look nonchalant, sipping his beer. Inwoo leaned subtly closer to hear better. Now the conversation was finally getting interesting. If there was something that made Dongsik nervous, it was worth hearing.

“Basically, you said you’re very interested in someone you met again after a long time.”

Dongsik almost choked on his beer.

“I… I didn’t mean like that. I just…”

Jaeho nudged him with his elbow.

“It’s that police lady who dropped you off just now, right?”

 _Police?_ Inwoo felt like he had been doused with ice-cold water.

“Looks like it’s true, your face got all red,” Jaeho said.

All attention was on Dongsik, so no one really took notice as Inwoo got up abruptly and walked out.

Outside he stopped, breathing out slowly. Dongsik, who was secretly getting up to whatever shady things he had going on, and a police officer? Ridiculous.

Inwoo had noted that the female police officer who had picked Dongsik up that night at the construction site, and the one who had been in the lobby when Jihoon had assaulted Dongsik, had been one and the same. It had seemed like an unimportant detail before, so Inwoo hadn’t really thought about it, but both times the two of them had behaved with more familiarity than just an ordinary citizen and a police officer. Was that the one?

Logically, it perhaps made sense for Dongsik to have connections with law enforcement, if he was going around breaking the law. But having connections that were essentially business arrangements was an entirely different thing than something more personal. The thought irritated Inwoo, though he wasn't quite sure why. Was it intuition that this would spell trouble for his own plans?

He glanced back inside. It seemed people had stopped pestering Dongsik, who was now just idly staring at his drink. This could have been a good opportunity to talk to him, but Inwoo wasn’t in the mood for that anymore. He watched as Dongsik took his phone out of his pocket, then smiled at whatever he saw on the screen. A message from the police officer, perhaps? Inwoo turned away.

Now he really wasn’t in the mood.

***

As if to confirm that Dongsik really had something going on with the police officer, she showed up in front of the office the following evening. Feeling a growing irritation anytime he saw Dongsik, Inwoo had avoided him all day. But now that he saw the two of them talking just outside, he decided it was the perfect opportunity to assess the situation. If this was something that could get in the way of his plans for bringing Dongsik to his side, he needed to know what was going on.

“Is he in trouble, officer?” he said, walking over to them.

Both of them turned to look at him, startled. Inwoo gave a cursory glance to the police officer to size her up. She didn’t seem like the corrupt type, though one could never be sure. What had been the name he had heard in the lobby at that time? Bokyung? Yes, that was it, Shim Bokyung. He would have to run a background check on her to find out more.

“No, he’s not in trouble,” she said and smiled. “He’s just helping me with something.”

“Something like an investigation?” Inwoo turned his attention to Dongsik, being far more interested in his reactions than hers. What he wanted to figure out right now was which secrets Dongsik was keeping from her.

“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Dongsik said hastily.

“How can I not worry when you come to work looking like you’ve been beaten up?”

Dongsik stared at him blinking, then looked away. It seemed this topic didn’t make him agitated, just a bit uncomfortable. Mostly he appeared to find Inwoo’s concern puzzling.

Inwoo sighed audibly and glanced at Bokyung.

“Can you do something so this doesn’t happen again?” he said, indicating the bruises on Dongsik’s face.

“I’m doing my best,” she said, giving Dongsik a wry glance.

She did seem to know how Dongsik had gotten beaten up, but what else did she know? Inwoo considered bringing up Jihoon’s incident in some casual way, but it was best to not get hasty. He didn’t want them to realize he had other motives than just the concern of a nice, caring boss.

“Then I’ll leave him in your care,” Inwoo said, placing his hand on Dongsik’s shoulder.

It was a just small, casual gesture, but it was a carefully planned one. To think of it as marking his territory was a very crude way to put it, but it was accurate. It was a gesture that said it wasn’t Inwoo who was intruding in whatever these two were up to. He was the one in control. He was the one who had saved Dongsik’s life. It was only natural that life belonged to him now. No matter what kind of relationship Dongsik had with this woman, it couldn’t be more important than that.

Dongsik’s shoulder grew tense under the touch, but he didn’t move until Inwoo removed his hand. Satisfied that the moment had played out exactly as he wanted, Inwoo walked away without saying another word.


	6. Chapter 6

The background check on Shim Bokyung revealed that she was the daughter of a reputable detective, and her parents owned a small coffee shop. Inwoo hoped to get a chance to 'accidentally' run into her in a situation that could easily lead to a casual chat, so the coffee shop seemed like a good place to start. He didn’t need to keep an eye on the place for long until the perfect opportunity presented itself, with Bokyung in the shop on her own and only a few other customers around.

She was standing by a table talking to a customer when Inwoo entered the shop. He walked over to the counter and started to read the menu without paying her any attention.

“Oh?” She smiled as she walked behind the counter. “Aren’t you Dongsik’s boss?”

Since she so conveniently saved Inwoo the trouble of bringing up Dongsik, it would be easy to steer the conversation back to that later. But first, while ordering a coffee, Inwoo engaged her in a bit of casual chitchat to learn that it was her day off and she had sent her parents out to spend some time together. To Inwoo that spelled out that she was the sentimental type, and it was likely the most efficient approach with her would be to appeal to her emotions. He left her to prepare the coffee and sat down at a table close to the counter, perfectly situated so that it would be awkward for her to just ignore him while she worked.

“You seem to know Dongsik well,” Inwoo said when she brought him his coffee.

“I suppose I could say he’s sort of family friend.”

Sort of family friend? What was he supposed to make of such a vague term?

“Then, the other night it hopefully wasn’t a police matter you needed his help with?”

“Oh, that. Um…” It seemed she was either unsure if she should talk about it or unsure how to not talk about it without being rude.

“I’m sorry if I shouldn’t ask,” Inwoo said to put her at ease. “It’s just that… he won’t tell me anything about how he got those bruises. If he’s in some kind of trouble, I want to know if there’s some way I can help.”

Her expression softened. The emotional approach definitely worked on her.

“I can’t really tell you the details,” she said, “but you don’t have to worry. That situation has been sorted out now.”

“I see. That’s a relief.”

She went back behind the counter, leaving Inwoo alone with his coffee. So, it wasn’t that easy to make her talk. That was a bit frustrating, but then again it would have been disappointing if Dongsik surrounded himself with people who could be persuaded with just a few sweet words. Inwoo tried to think of another way to get her to tell him something, but just a few moments later something even better happened—Dongsik walked past the window.

Dongsik glanced at Inwoo’s car that parked just outside, then stopped and looked at it again. Inwoo watched him walk to the door of the shop, and when he stepped inside, he didn’t seem to be surprised to see Inwoo there. That was interesting. He seemed to have recognized the car, and quite fast even in a place he shouldn’t have expected to find it.

Dongsik didn’t look very happy about it, but it wouldn’t have been possible for him to just ignore his boss in the circumstances, so he walked over to Inwoo’s table. It was funny to think how not long ago Dongsik appearing unexpectedly had been the world’s biggest annoyance, but now Inwoo couldn’t have been more pleased.

“What a coincidence,” Inwoo said. There was no need to fake a smile now, rather he needed to restrain the genuine one a bit to not look too happy.

“Director Seo, why are you here?”

“To get coffee. Isn’t that what people come to coffee shops for?”

“Oh, Dongsik, you’re here,” Bokyung said, walking over to the table. “You’ll have to wait a bit. Do you want coffee or something else meanwhile?”

“Pick anything you want,” Inwoo said. “I’ll pay.”

“No, I’m fine,” Dongsik said.

“You should at least sit,” Inwoo said. Dongsik hesitated for a moment, then sank into the chair across from Inwoo. He had that air to him again like he was trying to be as small as possible, but pretending to be harmless wasn’t going to fool Inwoo anymore.

Bokyung lingered by the table. She looked from Inwoo to Dongsik and tilted her head.

“Come to think of it,” she said, “weren’t you two together that night a few weeks ago?”

Dongsik looked up, startled.

“You know that night we took you home and you were acting a bit strange?” she continued.

“Oh, that time,” Dongsik said hastily, “he, uh, came to talk to me because he was worried about the situation at the office. Right?”

“Right,” Inwoo said slowly. He studied the silent plea on Dongsik’s face. Just like it had been that night, the truth about what he had been up to was evidently still something he didn’t want her to know about. But rather than try to understand the reason behind that, Inwoo bounced on the opportunity to take the conversation to the most interesting part.

“In any case,” he said, “in the end, you handled the… situation at the office much better than I expected.”

Dongsik shifted uneasily in his chair, growing tense.

“I didn’t really do anything,” he said. Bokyung looked curious, but obviously blissfully unaware of what was going on. Inwoo smiled. Things were now progressing almost too well.

“You really think I don’t know about it?” he said, relishing the cornered look on Dongsik’s face. He stirred his coffee deliberately slowly before continuing. “I mean, everyone knows how even in that difficult situation you kept your whole team’s best interest at heart.”

Dongsik relaxed slightly, but his expression revealed he knew full well that wasn’t what Inwoo had really meant.

“And I scolded you for being too nice,” Bokyung said with an apologetic smile. “Things are much better now, right? You’ve been in a better mood lately.”

“Yes,” Dongsik said, suddenly smiling. “Our new director _really_ takes a personal interest in the well-being of the employees.”

It may have sounded like a friendly statement to anyone else, but Inwoo felt the barb underneath. Apparently Dongsik had been pushed enough to start acting out of line again. And while that should have made Inwoo angry, in this situation it was quite amusing. It was like the two of them were playing a game no one else was in on, which suited him just fine. He really didn’t need anyone else getting in between.

“Don’t praise me that much,” he said. “I think you know I don’t do that to just anyone.”

Dongsik seemed to have no response to that, and he lowered his head, staring at the table. Bokyung turned slowly on her heels.

“I should check on the… fruit,” she said and walked back behind the counter, disappearing from sight. At that moment Inwoo could have almost said he quite liked her. Not only had she turned out to be pretty useful so far, but she also had the sense to leave when she wasn’t needed.

“It seems you come here often,” Inwoo said. “Friend of the family, or something like that.”

“Well, yes,” Dongsik said, looking up. “How did you end up coming here out of all places?”

“I just happened to pass by, and this looked like a quiet and peaceful place,” Inwoo said, noting the quick change of topic. It was yet another wall Dongsik was putting up, one that said not to pry into his personal life.

“Why were you passing by?” Dongsik asked.

“I was just looking for something I want.”

“What’s that?”

“Just something.” Inwoo smiled, sipping his coffee. Dongsik didn’t seem to be amused by the conversation that went nowhere, but it was only fair he got to find what it was like to keep hitting a wall. Now that Inwoo had found a way to make him squirm, he would keep him squirming for a bit.

The door of the shop was pushed open, and a man and a woman, along with two small dogs, walked in. As soon as the dogs were let off their leashes, they came running across the floor to Dongsik.

“Hello,” Dongsik said, leaning down to pet the dogs. “Did you miss me?”

The man who had entered with the dogs strode after them towards Dongsik.

“Yook Dongsik,” he said, “you’re a bad influence, stay away from the dogs.”

Dongsik straightened up meekly, and the man picked up the dogs, giving Dongsik a stern look.

“Dad,” Bokyung said from behind the counter, “it’s been months. Just you let it go, will you?”

“Whose daughter are you that you’re so bossy,” the man said. She glared at him as he walked to the back of the shop with the dogs.

“I’m sorry,” the woman, who was presumably Bokyung’s mother, said to Dongsik, “he’s having one of those days again. Retirement doesn’t suit him.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Dongsik said.

Bokyung’s mother sent Bokyung away from the counter, despite the latter’s protests, and Dongsik jumped up from his chair.

“Can we go now?” he asked. Bokyung glanced at Inwoo, smiling brightly.

“You two can take your time to—”

“No, _now_ is good,” Dongsik said, almost pushing her towards the door.

Inwoo left the coffee shop soon after them. The earlier amusement was turning into an uncomfortable constricted feeling in his throat. What were those two up to now?

Though at least he had learned something useful—that Bokyung didn’t know about what had happened to Jihoon. And that evidently in addition to all the other things that were strange about Dongsik, he was somehow a bad influence on dogs. Whatever that meant.

***

Inwoo’s mood was further ruined by Jihoon’s mother at family dinner that night.

“I think someone should properly investigate that employee our Jihoon had some conflict with,” she said.

Inwoo tightened his grip on his knife. ‘Some conflict’ was such a cute way of saying ‘assaulted in broad daylight’. Why was she bringing that up again? As far as his father was concerned, at least on the surface, the matter had already been chalked up to Jihoon overreacting from stress. Of course, most people in the office, including Inwoo’s father, knew the situation was much more complicated. But for the time being, the most important thing was to avoid more public outrage. And Dongsik was nothing more than an unfortunate bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite Jihoon’s incoherent claims, almost no one believed he'd had anything to do with Jihoon ending up in the hospital.

“Jihoon is not a child,” Inwoo’s father said. “If he couldn’t handle the problem on his own, he should sit still until he learns to do so.”

“Is this some normal incident?” she said. “It could be something that endangers the whole company, shouldn’t it at least be investigated more thoroughly?”

She got no response this time, but that wasn’t enough to get her to give up.

“The same thing could happen to Inwoo, too. What will you do if you run out of sons?”

Inwoo’s father gave her an icy glare.

“He must learn to handle it on his own. Don’t make me repeat myself again.”

She didn’t argue, but the determined expression on her face told Inwoo she was only biding her time to bring it up again. She had to know she was on thin ice pressing the matter, which begged the question _why_. Jihoon had been staying obediently in the hospital. Perhaps a bit too obediently, considering there wasn’t actually anything wrong with him and he wasn’t the type to enjoy peace and quiet, at least not sober.

Determined that he needed to stay on top of what was going on in case Jihoon and his mother would try to cause some trouble, Inwoo drove to the hospital after the dinner. He found the nurse in charge of Jihoon and took her aside.

“How’s he doing?” he asked.

“He’s recovering quite well,” she said. An answer that didn’t really say anything. She was obviously well used to providing them by now.

“Do they pay you enough to put up with him?”

There was only a flicker of uncertainty, then she smiled.

“It’s really no trouble at all.”

“Good,” Inwoo said. “You know exactly what you should say. From now on, if there’s anything unusual going on or if he’s causing any trouble, let me know. I’ll make sure you get a bonus that’s more than enough. You can do that for me, right?”

She agreed, and Inwoo gave her his personal number, stressing that the sooner any information would reach him, the more valuable it would be.

He didn’t bother seeing Jihoon before leaving the hospital. His face would only ruin what little was left of his mood.

***

The next day at the office, Dongsik was doing his best to avoid Inwoo again. Inwoo left it be for half a day, just to drive home the point that no matter how clever Dongsik thought he was being, he still wouldn’t be able to dodge an actual command from his managing director.

Inwoo ambushed him in the hallway when he was returning from lunch with Jaeho.

“Should we go drinking tonight, just the two of us?” Jaeho was asking Dongsik.

“Not today,” Dongsik replied.

“Oh, do you have a date?” Jaeho nudged him with his elbow.

“I told you, it’s not like that.”

They greeted Inwoo when they saw him, Dongsik with his eyes on the floor. Inwoo allowed him to take two steps, thinking he’d manage to escape the situation, before stopping him.

“Dongsik, I need a word.”

Dongsik stopped in his tracks. Jaeho slowed down but knew better than to linger around when Inwoo’s request hadn’t included him. Dongsik looked dejected but recovered surprisingly fast. He turned to Inwoo with a pleasant smile.

“Director Seo,” he said, “should I recommend you some coffee shops so you don’t have to go so far away next time?”

Inwoo sighed. He might have enjoyed just playing fun games with him endlessly if Jihoon’s mother hadn’t reminded him that no matter what, he couldn’t allow Dongsik to become an obstacle to his plans.

Inwoo stepped closer so he could talk quietly enough for only Dongsik to hear.

“Do you think I’m the only one you need to worry about?” he asked. Dongsik’s smile faded.

“You can’t survive on your own,” Inwoo said, “so you should _really_ think about who can keep you safe, and who has been keeping you safe so far.”

He preferred Dongsik to come to him on his own, but this would be his last chance. He couldn’t tolerate any more unexpected twists that lead to things no longer being under his control.


	7. Chapter 7

Just a few days later planting extra eyes on Jihoon turned out to have been the right move. The nurse called Inwoo and told him she had just seen Jihoon leave the hospital and get into a taxi. She couldn’t say if anything else had happened as she was just starting her shift for the night, so Inwoo drove to the hospital himself to find out what Jihoon was up to this time.

Jihoon’s expensive private room looked like someone had been either having a party or throwing a spectacular tantrum. Jihoon’s driver, who somehow hadn’t gotten fired yet despite letting him get in trouble the last time, came in as Inwoo was looking around the messy room. The driver was carrying bags of what seemed to be alcohol. Probably the reason Jihoon kept him was that he ran around like a dog tending to his every whim.

“Where did he go?” Inwoo asked.

“He’s not here?” The driver set the bags aside and looked around. The nurse came in, saying none of the staff seemed to know what had been going on, they were just glad the noise had stopped.

Inwoo picked up a large piece of paper lying on the floor. It turned out to be a hand-drawn portrait of Dongsik, which Jihoon had evidently stabbed with everything he could get his hands on.

“What’s this?” Inwoo lifted the portrait up for the others to see.

“I was an art major,” the driver said proudly. Perhaps Jihoon kept this guy because he was so stupid he would make even Jihoon feel like a genius.

“Do you think I’m asking about your art skills?”

“He said he needed to take the frustration out on something,” the driver said hastily under Inwoo’s cold stare, “and I thought, well, this guy made him mad, so… Anyway, he told me to go buy more drinks, and I guess he went somewhere while I was gone.”

“He had alcohol?” the nurse asked. “He shouldn’t be drinking!”

“Why?” Inwoo asked. “Would he be on any medication when there’s nothing…”

He trailed off as the pieces of the puzzle started to fall in place.

“Morphine,” he said. It was hardly necessary to even ask. After all, Jihoon never changed. The nurse turned her eyes down and nodded.

So, Jihoon had been getting his fun fix directly at the hospital. No wonder he had been so content staying there. And his mother probably knew, or suspected. That was the reason for trying to dig up something about Dongsik, to push the blame on anything other than Jihoon simply being too weak to stay clean.

“I’m sorry,” the nurse said, “I should have told you right away.”

She really should have, Jihoon’s drug problem could be quite useful to Inwoo. Still, it wasn’t too late to make the most of the situation.

“I understand,” Inwoo said. “You’d have risked your job. I’ll make this whole thing go away quietly. We need to protect my brother, too. Since he walked out on his own feet, I doubt he’s in danger of dying from an overdose just yet.” Which at another time would have been a nice turn of events, but Jihoon had dragged the company’s reputation down enough for one year.

“I’ll go find him,” he continued. “Meanwhile, get me the name of the doctor who’s been enabling this, and anyone else who knows. Make sure they don’t talk to anyone, not even to anyone from our family. And prepare for anything that might be needed when I drag… _bring_ him back.”

“Do you know where he went?” the driver asked after the nurse left.

“I think I can make a guess,” Inwoo said, pushing Dongsik’s portrait into his hands. “You stay here and clean up this mess.”

“Me? But I’m not…” He fell silent under Inwoo’s glare.

“And if you want to keep the ability to draw, never draw that again.”

***

Inwoo tried to call Dongsik, but he didn’t answer. It was just past 11pm, he might be already asleep, or drinking somewhere, or maybe getting himself mysteriously bruised again. Or purposefully avoiding his calls. Jihoon, on the other hand, in his intoxicated state would most likely just act on impulse, and the first place he would try to find Dongsik was probably his home.

Inwoo parked his car in the alley beside the building Dongsik lived in. It didn’t hurt to be cautious. What might Jihoon do if he had come here? Or what might Dongsik do, for that matter? Though simply staying out of it might just help Inwoo get rid of one problem for good, the situation was too unpredictable for him to be willing to let them fight it out.

Everything was quiet the way one might expect on a normal late evening in a building like this when Inwoo proceeded up the stairs. Nothing seemed out of place. Not until there was a loud shriek, followed by a crash, and then everything went quiet again.

Inwoo hesitated for a moment. Was he already too late in preventing the place from becoming a crime scene? But even if that was the case, he needed to know for sure, and fast. He leaped up the remaining stairs to Dongsik’s floor.

Dongsik’s door was ajar. Inwoo walked over as quietly as he could, and peeked inside. Jihoon was lying on the floor with Dongsik crouched down beside him. A stack of books was scattered around Jihoon. It seemed the crash Inwoo had heard had been caused by a knocked over a bookshelf that was leaning against the sofa.

Dongsik looked up when Inwoo pushed the door open. Then he lowered his head again and buried his hands into his hair. Wet hair, Inwoo noted. Dressed in a T-shirt and PJ pants, he must have been on his way to bed after a shower when Jihoon had arrived to ruin his evening.

“Is he dead?” Inwoo asked.

“No,” Dongsik mumbled, “I think he’s drunk.”

Inwoo pulled the door closed after him, and walked over to take a look at Jihoon’s face. Drunk and on drugs, but apparently at least still breathing. No blood, no signs of injuries. It was almost disappointing.

“Was this what you meant when you said I have more than you to worry about?” Dongsik asked.

“Kind of,” Inwoo said. “And see who showed up to help?”

Dongsik stood up, with his head still lowered, and shoulders hunched.

“Am I supposed to be grateful for that?” he asked quietly. “You’ll just somehow use this to your own advantage.”

Inwoo couldn’t blame him for being in a bad mood, considering he’d just been attacked in his own home, but his moodiness surely should be directed on anything other than him.

“I get why you’re upset with drunken Jihoon here, but why me?” Inwoo asked. “All things considered, _shouldn’t_ you be grateful?”

Dongsik said nothing, and Inwoo was starting to lose his patience with the attitude. Perhaps he had been showering Dongsik with too much attention, letting him have everything too easy. Perhaps it was time to make him beg.

“Fine,” Inwoo said, “I think I should call officer Shim Bokyung and ask if she can help me find my missing brother.”

He turned to leave, but not only did Dongsik _not_ try to beg, he caught Inwoo by the back of his coat and dragged him back.

“You do that, and I’ll tell the chairman you told me to attack your brother.”

Inwoo had no trouble freeing himself of his grasp, and he turned swiftly around to face him. Maybe he should have expected this, that Dongsik wasn’t that easy to push around or threaten. But it seemed he really didn’t know when to quit.

“Just because you can beat an idiot like Jihoon, don’t get delusional,” Inwoo said, taking a step closer. “I am not someone you can handle.”

Dongsik almost took a step back, but then forced himself to stop.

“Are you sure _you_ can handle _me?_ ”

This was not trying-to-seem-harmless Dongsik anymore. This was the one Inwoo had seen a brief glimpse of before things had gone to hell for Jihoon. He wasn’t sure what kind of power this guy was running on, but it sure was fascinating. Looking at it objectively, it was quite exciting, and there was really something very captivating about the intensity of his eyes when they were like that, at the same time furious and dangerously calm. But Inwoo didn’t like that fury being directed at himself. Not in this manner, at least.

Jihoon groaned down on the floor. They both turned to look at him, but he only shifted slightly, looking like he tried to curl up but didn’t have enough control of his own body. Poor Jihoon. The floor was probably uncomfortable to sleep on, no matter how much his brain was swimming in fun chemicals.

Inwoo took a step back, running his hand through his hair. Now was not the time to get distracted. He needed to think about the big picture. He couldn’t be involved with anything bad happening to Jihoon, not when he didn’t have a seamless plan to make sure it couldn’t be connected to him.

“Let’s take him back to the hospital,” he said. “He’s not just drunk, and he may need help to get his head cleared this time.”

“And some way you will benefit from that, right?” Dongsik asked. He really was stubborn.

“Right now, what’s good for me is good for you,” Inwoo said. “Why don’t you get that?”

“I get it, I just hate it. What do you want from me, anyway?” Dongsik backed away, too, leaning against the wall. He was now more frustrated than furious, and this was something Inwoo could work with.

“First of all,” he said, sitting down on the edge of Dongsik’s kitchen table, “I want you to tell me what happened with Jihoon that night. I trust you know what I mean.”

Dongsik sighed and looked away.

“I need to know so I can protect you,” Inwoo said. “Even if Jihoon is out, next you need to worry about his mother, and if she gets her way, after that it’s my father.”

“Your whole family is just…” Dongsik said, shaking his head.

“Yes, they’re terrible,” Inwoo said. “Now, tell me.”

“That night got a bit out of hand,” Dongsik said, finally giving in. “He sent some thugs to scare me, but I already expected that, since he’s done the same before. When that plan failed, he came to meet me himself and… well, he got to find out that it’s a very bad idea to threaten me in front of Chilsung.”

“Chilsung?”

“He lives upstairs,” Dongsik said, as if that explained anything.

“And then?”

“Then what? That’s it.” Dongsik scratched his head. “Oh, Chilsung almost hit him with his car later, but he didn’t mean to do that. I think.”

“And the thugs Jihoon sent, what happened with them?”

“Chilsung asked them to leave, so they did.”

“Hold on,” Inwoo said, trying to keep up. “This lives-upstairs-Chilsung just told them to leave and… they left?”

Dongsik nodded as if there was nothing strange about that. Inwoo suspected getting him to explain further would take all night, so he chose to just move the story along. Maybe then it would start to make sense.

“So why did Jihoon attack you in the lobby the next day?”

“I don’t know,” Dongsik said, looking more and more frustrated. “He has a grudge, I guess. Isn’t that why he’s here again?”

“So you didn’t drive him to the point of doing that on purpose?”

“Why would I do that?”

Inwoo wondered if he could be lying, but for a lie, the story was just too disjointed.

But that everything had been just an unexpected chain of events that had still turned out so well for Dongsik? It was absurd. Inwoo pressed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. Then again, wasn’t this just like what had happened in Gwangju all those years ago? Inwoo had had a plan and then Dongsik had stumbled in and everything had turned out weird. It was like Dongsik just brought chaos with him wherever he went.

“Why did you even go after him like that?” Inwoo asked, trying to grasp at least some strand of reason. “You should have just done what I told you to do, and it all would have ended quietly.”

“So you can do whatever you want to people, but I can’t?” Dongsik asked bitterly. “I’ve had enough of being part of the greedy and petty fight between you two.”

Greedy and petty? Did he not even understand how important the matters he was messing with were? The illusion that Dongsik could be a useful ally was crumbling fast. He was just too out of control, and the attitude was starting to really grate on Inwoo’s nerves. No sense of gratitude, just that perplexing anger.

“I think I should reconsider your promotion,” Inwoo said. “The company doesn’t need a dangerous criminal element like you.”

Dongsik scoffed.

“Like you haven’t done worse.”

Inwoo thought about it. How did one measure worse in this context? Over the years he had naturally needed to move some people out of the way, but those had all been done cleanly so that the people in question were left with just a vague sense that their lives had suddenly taken a mysterious turn for the worse. No one had ended up in a hospital with a relapsed drug addiction, as far as he knew. Of course, he had _thought_ of doing much worse, but as those plans had not panned out…

“I’m quite sure I have not, actually,” he said.

Dongsik turned to look at him, the anger fading just enough to show he was genuinely trying to determine the truthfulness of Inwoo’s words.

“Never?” he asked.

“Never.” It was an honest answer, or so Inwoo had decided. Whether Dongsik believed him or not was up to Dongsik, and the uncertainty in his eyes told Inwoo he was at least considering the possibility.

Inwoo smiled. This was one hilariously ironic upside to his plans failing. Dongsik’s resentment seemed to stem from some kind of sense of moral superiority, but he didn’t really have much of a leg to stand on in the circumstances. Maybe this night had not been a complete waste of time. Even if he wouldn’t be able to turn Dongsik into the ally he had hoped, at least he could knock the edge off his attitude.

“Let’s take poor Jihoon back to safety before you do something worse to him,” he said. Dongsik didn’t look amused. He stepped over Jihoon and the scattered books to pick up a sweater from the sofa.

“And dress warmly,” Inwoo called after him, smirking. “It’s freezing outside.”

***

Even between the two of them, it wasn’t easy to get Jihoon to the elevator, and to Inwoo’s car from there. It wasn’t fun, either, and Inwoo was tempted to be a bit careless about where Jihoon bumped his head on the way, but he was determined to stick to being good for now, if only just to annoy Dongsik. Though Dongsik had calmed down a bit, no longer showing any signs of open hostility. He didn’t seem very enthusiastic about the task either, but then again, who would be?

They had just managed to get Jihoon to the backseat of Inwoo’s car when a police car drove past the front of the building. It was just a brief moment the car rolled past the alley they were in, but it was enough for them to see it was Bokyung on the front seat, and enough for her to spot the two of them. Dongsik groaned and leaned against the car.

“This just couldn’t get worse,” he said, hanging his head. “She’s going to come and check what’s going on, just so you know.”

“Isn’t she your friend or something?” Inwoo said. “Just tell her to leave.”

“She won’t just leave if she thinks something is weird,” Dongsik said. “She’s actually good at her job.”

There was nothing weird about Inwoo driving around his drunken brother, but the addition of Dongsik to the picture complicated things. She had been there when Jihoon attacked Dongsik in the office, after all, it made sense she would at least want to know why Jihoon was here in the first place. Inwoo was trying to think of a plausible explanation for that when Dongsik grasped the collar of his coat and pulled him closer.

“Sorry about this,” Dongsik said, wincing. “Come here.”

“What are you doing?” Inwoo was too confused to resist, even though the distance between them was getting far too short. Nonexistent, in fact.

“Well, uh… she was very quick to leave us alone when she misunderstood you the last time.”

“What?” Inwoo closed his eyes, hoping that would help him stay focused, but it only made him all the more aware of the warmth of the closeness.

“Maybe you don’t know,” Dongsik hissed against his shoulder, “but you’re a bit _too_ intense.”

Intense was also the clash of facts in Inwoo’s brain—that what he had wanted was to make some use of Dongsik, that he had already decided it would be a pointless endeavor, that the pull he felt right now was as compelling as gravity, something he couldn’t back away from even if he tried. These things did not add up.

Dongsik pulled back a few inches, maybe out of concern that Inwoo unexpectedly wasn’t arguing, or moving, or possibly even breathing. It wasn’t enough distance to make it any easier for him to think. It was actually more distracting to have Dongsik’s face so close to his own.

Well, if Dongsik said this was a misunderstanding that would make her leave fast…

Inwoo turned his head and kissed him.

In the brief moment Dongsik froze, it occurred to Inwoo that perhaps he hadn’t intended to take the pretense quite that far. But then with a soft sigh Dongsik melted into the kiss, and if he hadn’t intended it before, he did now. He intended _something_ , anyway, holding tightly to the collar of Inwoo’s coat, pulling him even closer. Inwoo pushed him backward the half a step it took to get his back against the car. Compared to the fury in his eyes, this… was much better.

“Dongsik?” Bokyung’s voice pierced through the warm haze. “Is everything… oh.”

Inwoo broke the kiss, irritated at the interruption, then remembered the interruption had supposedly been the whole point in the first place. At least any pretense really couldn’t get more realistic than this. He tried to move away, but Dongsik was still holding tightly onto his collar, leaving him no choice but to lean his hand on the car and try to cope with the uncomfortable closeness.

“Sorry,” Bokyung said cheerfully, “I got a report about noise. Have you seen anything odd?”

“What?” Dongsik said, sounding dazed. “Oh. Um. N-no.”

“Okay. Sorry. I’ll just go.”

Dongsik lowered his head, his wet hair brushing against Inwoo’s cheek. The cold sensation felt like fire, leaving Inwoo painfully aware of every contrasting feeling, hot and cold, the closeness that was now too much distance. He struggled to get his breathing back to normal, feeling strangely light-headed.

It was the adrenaline. It was the physical exertion of getting Jihoon down here. It was… neither of those things, he knew that damned well, and if he couldn’t get away immediately, the misunderstanding would very fast stop being one.

Holding Dongsik’s wrists, Inwoo pulled his hands off his coat.

“Oh.” Dongsik seemed to only now realize he had still been clinging on. “Sorry.”

Inwoo took a step back. The night air felt significantly colder now.

“Get in the car,” he said quietly.

For once Dongsik actually did what he was told.


	8. Chapter 8

Dongsik spent most of the drive to the hospital staring quietly out of the window. Inwoo was thankful for that. He knew a losing battle when he saw one, and trying to pretend that kiss had been just a ruse for either of them was definitely one. Words could be easily taken back. That moment… not so much. Not when he was certain that if they hadn’t been interrupted, things would have really gotten out of control. Jihoon, still out of it, mumbled something incoherent on the backseat, reminding Inwoo that he needed to stay focused on the task at hand. Anything else could wait.

He wanted to keep the story simple and clean. Jihoon’s addiction had relapsed, and Inwoo had just happened to find out about it. And then, for Jihoon’s sake, he had handled the situation swiftly. With the right combination of money and fear of consequences, the hospital staff wouldn’t be a problem. They would back up anything Inwoo said. The weak link was Jihoon, who would need to be convinced it was in his own best interest to forget he had ever left the hospital at all. As of yet, Inwoo had no idea how he would persuade Jihoon to do that, but he would get there. One step at a time.

He gripped the steering wheel tightly. One step at a time of _not_ thinking about why he was so affected by a single kiss.

Step one was getting Jihoon back into his room as discreetly as possible. Inwoo pulled the car to a stop at the hospital’s parking hall. At this time of night, the ward Jihoon’s room was in would be quiet, which was both good and bad. Good, because there wouldn’t be many people around. Bad, because if there were people they would be keener to notice anything unusual.

“Wait here with him until I get back,” he said. Dongsik, who had been sitting quietly, was startled out of his thoughts. Inwoo suspected he could guess what he had been thinking about, which was all the more reason he needed a few moments of being away from him. He couldn’t let himself get distracted. From this point onward, there were countless details he needed to keep track of to keep the situation under control.

Up in the ward, the nurse was easy to find. She dropped whatever she had been doing the instant she saw Inwoo. With the future of her career potentially hanging on what happened to Jihoon, it was no wonder.

“Jihoon is in my car in the parking hall,” Inwoo said. “Go down there, we need to bring him up quietly. Where’s that doctor?”

“He’s not on call tonight.”

“Get him to come, anyway. But tell him nothing other than that Jihoon needs attention.” It would be better to not give the doctor time to think before Inwoo had him cornered.

Inwoo went into Jihoon’s room, where the driver was looking lost and wringing his hands. At least he’d done a passable job cleaning the room. His face lit up when he saw Inwoo.

“Did you find him?”

“Yes. Time for you to go.”

Inwoo walked him all the way to the elevator with a hand firmly gripping his shoulder. It would be better for him to not be around to mess things up more. In fact, it would be better for him to just be gone for good and stop feeding Jihoon’s vendetta with his foolish drawings.

“And don’t come back,” Inwoo said. “I’ll find you a new job.”

The driver looked like he was going to argue, but Inwoo cut him off before he could even begin.

“The alcohol you brought Jihoon tonight could have gotten him killed, so you really don’t want to be here when people find out. Right?” Of course, Inwoo had no intention of letting anyone find that out, but this guy didn’t need to know that. He just needed to stay out of the way.

After sending him off, Inwoo headed back down to the parking hall. The nurse was standing by his car, checking Jihoon’s pulse, and talking on the phone. Dongsik was pushing a wheelchair he’d found from somewhere towards the car. Inwoo slowed down. At least some people were actually making things easier for him.

“The doctor will be here in twenty minutes,” the nurse said, ending her call. “I’ll—”

“You’ll do whatever Jihoon needs meanwhile,” Inwoo said, waving his hand. “No need to explain.”

Moving Jihoon to his room went smoothly, but Inwoo couldn’t relax yet. He still needed to decide how to sell his version of the story to his father without too much difficulty. And before that, how to manage Jihoon himself after he woke up.

“Is this a hospital room?” Dongsik asked, interrupting his thoughts. “It’s like a whole apartment.”

Inwoo tensed but kept his eyes on Jihoon, who was being hooked up to an IV by the nurse. There was one detail here he had completely ignored, and that was that Dongsik didn’t really belong in the picture at all. He could have just left him back in his home after getting Jihoon into the car. Keeping him tagging along had happened almost too naturally after they were working toward the same goal.

“Should I get you a taxi?” Inwoo asked. “I’ll have to stay here until Jihoon wakes up.”

“I’ll stay, too.”

“It’s not a good idea for Jihoon to see us together.”

“I won’t let him see me, then. I just want to know how this ends.”

Inwoo didn’t argue further. He didn’t have time to figure out if they were allies or enemies or something else at the moment, and at least for as long as Dongsik stayed where he could see him, he wasn’t elsewhere potentially causing trouble.

The doctor arrived, and Inwoo barely gave him a chance to say his greetings before trapping him into his plan.

“Before anything else, do a blood test for morphine,” he said, “and when the results are done, have them sent directly to my father.”

The doctor stared at him, a strained half-smile on his face.

“Why specifically…”

“I know what’s going on here,” Inwoo said. “Just do what I say, and I can keep everything quiet.” He kept his tone calm and controlled, as if this was no big deal at all. For the doctor, who had suddenly found himself in deep water, it should be a clear sign that his best bet to avoid drowning was to follow Inwoo’s lead.

Dongsik, who had been listening quietly, leaned closer to Inwoo when the doctor went to talk to the nurse.

“He’s been getting drugs from the doctor?” he asked quietly.

Inwoo didn’t think this matter had anything to do with Dongsik, so he didn’t reply. Dongsik wasn’t content with the lack of answer, however. He dragged Inwoo by the sleeve to the back of the room, as far away from Jihoon’s bed as possible.

“Isn’t this something that should be reported to the police?” Dongsik asked, trying to keep his voice down.

“No.” Another time Inwoo might have considered that option, but at the moment he only needed to put Jihoon quietly out of the way. “Keeping this matter quiet is how I’ll keep everything under control.”

“That’s all that matters?” Evidently, Dongsik still wasn’t done being stubborn. Inwoo turned away, determined to ignore him to avoid another argument. Dongsik side-stepped in front of him.

“Do you really have to go this far to get what you want?” he asked. Inwoo sighed. He really should have sent him back home. Even if he wasn’t causing trouble elsewhere, causing trouble in front of him wasn’t any better.

“You said you’re tired of being part of this, right?” Inwoo said. “I’ll make it so you have nothing to do with this anymore, so _don’t_ get in my way.”

At least that worked, somewhat. Dongsik didn't look happy, but he stepped away, and Inwoo left him be, walking over to Jihoon’s bed to see how things were progressing.

“We’ll monitor his condition, but most likely he just needs to sleep it off now,” the doctor said. “He may feel terrible when he wakes up, though.”

“Good,” Inwoo said. “I need a word with you in private.”

He glanced at Dongsik, who was now sitting on the sofa on the other side of the room, staring down at the floor. Inwoo wasn’t sure what to do about him. He couldn't drag him along, but he didn't know if it was wise to let him out of his sight, either. Dongsik shivered, pushing his hands into the pockets of his coat. The room wasn’t cold, but he had been running around in the cold night with his hair still wet. Inwoo turned to the nurse.

“Bring him something hot to drink.” Hopefully, with that he’d just sit still while Inwoo was away.

Unlike the impossibly stubborn Dongsik, the doctor was very compliant, and Inwoo’s private chat with him was over soon. According to the doctor, Jihoon’s morphine use was a well-kept secret, and the only people who knew were those directly involved. Inwoo assured him he would keep the hospital’s involvement quiet. In turn, they just needed to not speak a word about it to anyone who asked, not even if it was someone else from their family. Even with just that the doctor seemed to be keen on leaving the matter fully in Inwoo’s hands, but Inwoo promised him a nice sum of money on top of that, to take away even the last bit of motivation he might have to go against him.

Inwoo returned to Jihoon’s room, where Dongsik was sitting alone. He still looked just as grumpy as before, but he was now cradling a hot mug of tea in his hands. Inwoo wondered if he might start another argument about something if he went anywhere near him. But there weren’t many places to sit in the room, and he definitely wasn’t going to stay directly by Jihoon’s side.

He walked over to the sofa and sat down on the other edge, leaning his head back and lifting his feet on the coffee table. After all the running around and managing everything, he wanted to sleep, but he knew couldn’t do that yet. He kept his eyes fixed on the pattern on the opposite wall, to resist the temptation of closing them.

“What are you going to do from here on?” Dongsik asked.

“You don’t need to know.”

“Shouldn’t I know what the plan is if someone comes to ask me about this?”

“No one’s going to ask because nothing happened tonight,” Inwoo said. “Jihoon will get sent somewhere to fix his addiction as soon as my father hears about it. He won’t be around to bother you for a good while.”

Inwoo fully intended to completely erase Dongsik’s involvement from the incident. That made for a much nicer picture, one of Jihoon just being a failure all on his own. Nothing strange had happened, he simply didn’t have what it took to manage the company. And Jihoon’s mother could keep barking for all eternity without anyone taking her seriously anymore.

“Why are you and your brother like this, anyway?” Dongsik asked. “It’s like you hate each other more than you hate anyone else.”

The question was like nails on a chalkboard to Inwoo.

“How else should we be?” he asked. “Should I just roll over, so he can have it easy?”

Dongsik really didn’t seem to understand, and that annoyed Inwoo more than anything at the moment.

“What was it you said, our fight is greedy and petty? The company is everything. And it’s _mine_. I’ve had to fight for every bit of it.”

“Earlier you said something about _his_ mother, so are you not…”

Dongsik fell silent as Inwoo grew even tenser. He was really getting close to crossing the line.

“Sorry,” Dongsik said quickly. “It’s not my business.”

Inwoo relaxed a little. At least Dongsik was observant. A bit too inquisitive, but objectively thinking, that wasn’t such a bad trait either.

“Yes, that’s right,” he said. “Jihoon is the legitimate son, I’m not. So, you think I’ve no right to become the successor instead of him?”

“Why would I think that? I think… you definitely manage everything much better.”

“Obviously,” Inwoo said, satisfied that Dongsik had at least some of his priorities in the right order, even if he seemed to want to fight about pointless things.

“For the employees, too, things are better now,” Dongsik said. “Everyone is treated like a human being, even if you actually care even less than your brother.”

“I care even less,” Inwoo repeated. It was most likely true, of course. Jihoon could still be childish enough to get swayed by emotions, at least when it came to women, and when it didn’t get in the way of his greed. To Inwoo, the employees were important cogs in the machine that was the company. There was no reason to treat them poorly, but whatever personal struggles they had were not his concern. If one of them broke, they’d just get replaced by a new one.

“Didn’t you already figure out I know?” Dongsik said. “How fake nice Seo Inwoo is.”

He sounded very tired all of a sudden, and Inwoo turned to look at him, trying to read what was going on in his mind. It had been obvious for a while he knew _something_ , but all in all, he seemed to understand things a bit too well.

“Because of what happened at the construction site?” Inwoo asked.

Dongsik stared at his tea. Inwoo turned his eyes back to the wall. Perhaps he shouldn’t have brought that up. After all, it had almost been like they had an unspoken agreement to pretend that incident didn’t happen.

“About that night…” Dongsik said. “I should have said this earlier, but…”

“What?” Inwoo asked tensely. If this made Dongsik all confrontational again, he really shouldn’t have brought it up.

“Thank you.”

Inwoo turned his head slightly. Had he heard him right? The gratitude had been so thoroughly absent before.

“I really mean it,” Dongsik said.

Inwoo felt he really couldn’t make sense of conversations with Dongsik. They were like roller-coasters, and it wasn't even possible to keep track if at any given point they were inching upwards or plummeting down to the bottom. Since he couldn’t predict what anything he said would lead to, he figured he might as well just try and see. Maybe asking too many questions would make Dongsik go home, but an even better outcome would be if Inwoo could learn at least something about what made him tick.

He turned sideways towards Dongsik, leaning his elbow on the backrest of the sofa.

“Why did you even go up there that night?” he asked.

Dongsik hunched his shoulders as if hoping Inwoo’s attention would just slide off him if he made himself look small enough. It was obviously a pointless strategy considering they were alone, not counting sleeping Jihoon. But as far as personal questions went, it was probably not possible to get more personal than this, so it was reasonable his instinct was to evade it.

“You know, you fight _me_ about every little thing,” Inwoo said, and a hint of a smile curved up the corner of Dongsik’s mouth. “You’re not someone who would give up easily.”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because I don’t understand,” Inwoo said.

Dongsik relaxed slightly. For a while he was quiet, and Inwoo almost expected he wouldn’t answer at all.

“I think… it’s not that I was ready to give up. I just kind of wanted to know how I’d feel about that option.” 

“And how did you feel about it?”

“I didn’t have time to find out, did I?” Dongsik's voice was sullen and prickly, and Inwoo turned away, leaning back on the sofa.

“Fine. Next time I’ll give you time to decide first.”

“Would there even be a next time? That time you only stopped me because I was useful to you.”

 _Next time._ The words made Inwoo uneasy. Granted, he was the one who had used them first, but he hadn’t really thought about the implication. He still couldn’t say he understood the mindset that had made Dongsik go up to the roof that night, but something like that wouldn’t just suddenly go away, would it?

“Next time… you stop yourself.”

Dongsik turned to look at him, and Inwoo figured he needed more of an explanation.

“I did say you need my permission first, didn’t I?”

Dongsik set his tea mug on the table with a slowness that seemed deliberate.

“Right, about that,” he said. The sharpness in his voice told Inwoo they were likely on the plummeting part of the roller-coaster again. Dongsik pulled one leg up to the sofa and turned toward Inwoo, leaning sideways against the backrest.

“I _am_ grateful,” Dongsik said, “but don’t you think all that was a bit too much? Wouldn’t anyone get angry when you say stuff like that?”

Inwoo closed his eyes, resisting the urge to move further away. He definitely wouldn’t let Dongsik make him feel uncomfortable, no matter how angry he got.

“You used that anger to fix the problem, so isn’t that a good thing?”

“You know, the way you talk, it’s like in your head nothing you do is ever wrong.”

“There’s no point in making mistakes, so no, I don’t make them.”

“That’s not…” Dongsik sighed. “Never mind. It must be nice to be that certain about everything.”

“In any case,” Inwoo said. “I’m not going to take that back. So that finding out you wanted to do, there’s no point. Don’t.”

Dongsik said nothing, and after the silence had gone on for a while, Inwoo opened his eyes to see what kind of mood he was in now. Dongsik was leaning his head against the sofa, staring down at his hands with a pensive expression.

“If you need to get angry again to not think about it, I can do that,” Inwoo said.

Dongsik laughed. Not a bitter laugh, just honest, genuine amusement, and out of all the strange turns the conversation had taken, this was perhaps the strangest.

“I really don’t know what to expect from you sometimes,” he said.

Inwoo was certain he was not the unpredictable one out of the two of them, but he didn’t argue. Maybe it was because he was so exhausted, but for the moment he liked the amused softness much better than the sharpness, and he didn’t feel like taking his chances with seeing how Dongsik’s mood might change again.

“Can you really make your family leave me alone?” Dongsik asked.

“Yes.”

“How? Isn’t your brother going to get even more angry at me after he wakes up?”

“I’ll convince him it’s better for him if no one knows he came to see you.”

“How will you do that?”

That was the question. Inwoo still hadn’t figured out that part. He was too tired, and Dongsik kept being too much of a distraction.

“I need to think in peace,” he said, standing up. “Keep an eye on him for a while.”

Hoping the cold night air would keep him focused, Inwoo walked out to the hospital’s yard. Pacing slowly back and forth on the gravel pathway, he tried to get his thoughts in order.

There were two things Jihoon had to fear his father finding out about currently, the drugs, and his nighttime adventure to Dongsik’s home. All in all, the former was the more serious thing. His father would probably not even care Jihoon had gone after Dongsik again, not when there had been no consequences. And Inwoo couldn’t let there be consequences without dragging Dongsik into the middle of it again. He needed to make Jihoon believe this incident would be the worse truth to come out.

Inwoo stopped, breathing in the cold air. In his father’s eyes, Jihoon was already a disappointment for not being able to sort out his own problems. That was something he could play up. Big time. How much more of a disappointment would Jihoon become if he’d so completely failed at dealing with Dongsik a second time? The only hitch in that was that Inwoo needed an explanation for how he knew about it. Jihoon was already suspicious that Inwoo was behind anything that happened to him. But it was a risk he would have to take. There was the plausible explanation that Dongsik had called Inwoo to come and take his troublesome brother away. He could pretend he knew nothing beyond that.

With his plan finally figured out, Inwoo went back inside. He ran into the nurse in the hallway outside Jihoon’s room.

“He’s awake,” she said.

Inwoo nodded. That was good. He wanted to get a chance for some sleep before meeting his father, which he planned to do as early in the morning as was reasonable.

“Your friend is with him,” she added, before walking away.

Inwoo froze. That was _not_ good. Hadn’t Dongsik said he wouldn’t let Jihoon see him? Inwoo had allowed himself to get so distracted he hadn’t even questioned if that was a lie.

Cursing silently, he approached the door, and pulled it open cautiously, just enough to listen in. He needed to know what was going on before deciding how to deal with it.

“You’re right,” Dongsik was saying, “that thing in the lobby, people forget something like that soon. It’s just some rude, rich brat acting out. But this time you came to my home in the middle of the night. How do you think that looks like?”

“You think I care what—”

“Since I’m the victim here,” Dongsik cut Jihoon off, “everyone will probably believe whatever I say. I wonder how far I could go with that story? Could I say it was… attempted murder?”

“Wh-what?”

“Your father wouldn’t like that, right? If people find out, even he can’t make it go away that easily. You’ll probably have to say goodbye to the successor’s position. Forever.”

Inwoo leaned his head against the door. Dongsik acting on his own was a bad habit he hoped he’d drop, but this was nice. Better than nice. He wished he could see Jihoon’s face.

“Fine,” Jihoon said. “What do you want?”

“I really just want to live quietly, so I’ll give you one chance. Stop bothering me, and I’ll forget this night ever happened. Of course, if anyone bothers me about this either, I will not stay quiet.”

Inwoo shut the door quietly and stepped away from it, leaning his back against the wall. A few moments later, Dongsik stepped out and closed the door behind him.

“I guess this is why you wanted to stay,” Inwoo said, startling Dongsik. “To put him in his place.”

Dongsik pushed his hands into his pockets, looking a bit sheepish.

“I just thought this fits your plan.”

It did. Essentially Dongsik had once again gone and interrupted Inwoo’s plan, but strangely enough, things would work out even better this way. Not that Inwoo wanted to admit that.

The nurse came back, and Inwoo stopped her before she reached the door.

“If Jihoon asks, you know nothing about what’s happened,” he said, and she nodded. “You did well today.”

She went into the room, and Inwoo turned around to find Dongsik staring after her with a frown.

“Just how did you make her your ally? She looks at you all starry-eyed.”

Inwoo couldn’t understand why Dongsik took notice of such an irrelevant thing. Things like that happened all the damn time, anyway.

“Is it my fault if someone fills their head with wishful thinking just because I pay them a little attention?”

Dongsik narrowed his eyes.

“I just told her I’ll pay her,” Inwoo said. “I didn’t…”

He paused, turning his head away. Why was he even explaining?

“Come on,” he said, “I’ll take you home.”

“I can take a taxi.”

“I have no reason to stay here anymore, either.” He turned Dongsik around, pushing him toward the exit. “You really need to stop doing things without asking me first. But other than that, you did well, too.”

“So, do I get paid, too?”

“Don't push your luck.”

The drive back was as quiet as the one before, but this time the reason was just sheer exhaustion more than anything else. Dongsik had fallen asleep by the time they had reached his home. He didn’t wake up when Inwoo stopped the car.

Inwoo watched him for a while, leaning on the steering wheel. Like this, Dongsik didn’t look much different from the last time he had been asleep in his car, all those years ago. It was kind of fascinating, how he had so many different faces. The goofy, clueless one, and the furious one, and this one that was just… unguarded. Inwoo couldn’t help but wonder if back then he had already been hiding that sharper edge underneath, or if that was a result of something that had happened afterward.

And just like back then, this night had been a series of unexpected twists. Inwoo had kept Jihoon’s situation neatly under control, but when it came to Dongsik, he had no idea how they had ended up where they were. He wasn’t even quite sure where it was that they were. Definitely not where he had intended.

He nudged Dongsik’s chin gently with his hand.

“Wake up.”

Dongsik turned his head, opening his eyes slowly.

“We’re here already?” He rubbed his neck, yawning. He stopped as he noticed Inwoo, who was still watching him intently.

“What?” he asked.

What indeed? Inwoo felt oddly reluctant to let him leave. Since he didn’t know where they were, he wasn’t sure if it would be possible to get back there later, either.

Inwoo turned away, leaning back in his seat. Something like that surely wasn’t even supposed to matter. It was one thing that the kiss had been great, but what was Dongsik to him that he cared about anything beyond him not messing up his plans?

“Will you be okay?” Dongsik asked.

“Me? Why?”

“Your family’s situation just seems kind of awful.”

“They’ve always been awful,” Inwoo said. “It’s nothing new. Go sleep inside, I don’t want to sit here all night.”

Dongsik unbuckled his seatbelt, moved to open the door, and then stopped.

“Tomorrow—”

Whatever he wanted to say was lost in the door being pulled open, almost causing Dongsik to topple out of the car.

“Hyungnim!”

“Chilsung?” Dongsik struggled to regain his balance. “Why are you so loud?”

He got out of the car, and Inwoo followed suit, curious about the name he'd heard.

“Where have you been?” Chilsung asked. “The boys said they saw that Seo-whatever-jerk skulking around.”

“Those boys should forget they saw that,” Inwoo said, sizing the man up. Judging by his appearance and demeanor Inwoo had no trouble believing he had indeed simply told Jihoon's gang to turn around.

“Right,” Dongsik said. “Tell them that. It’s been sorted out already.”

Chilsung scowled at Inwoo.

“He’s that jerk’s brother, right? Should I—”

“No, it’s fine,” Dongsik said.

“Are you sure? I could—”

“ _No._ Leave him alone.”

Chilsung lowered his eyes, standing meekly in front of Dongsik like a child that had just been scolded.

“Let me know how things turn out,” Dongsik said to Inwoo, and ushered Chilsung away from the car.

Inwoo got back into his car, feeling even more off-balance than before. He definitely could believe that guy had scared Jihoon witless, but that Dongsik could order him around like that didn't really make sense. It seemed finding out one thing about Dongsik only made the mystery grow twice as big. And the mystery of why Inwoo himself kept getting so invested in figuring it out wasn't any less perplexing.


	9. Chapter 9

In the morning, Inwoo went to present his father with the neatly trimmed story of how Jihoon had been partying too wildly at the hospital the previous night. He claimed he suspected drugs had been involved, so he had asked the doctor to do tests. Inwoo sat by while his father went into his study to make calls to check the story. It was a complete waste of time, but it would have been a miraculous turn of events if the old man took his word for it.

“It seems someone’s been paying the hospital staff to stay quiet,” his father said when he returned. He sat down in his armchair, cold, harsh eyes ready to catch the slightest sign of nervousness. It was baffling, really, how he thought that would still work on Inwoo.

“I did, to protect Jihoon’s reputation,” Inwoo said.

“They were so convinced they won’t tell anything even to my people.”

Inwoo said nothing. He knew this tiresome game so thoroughly he could play it in his sleep.

“Which is as it should be,” his father said. “If you buy someone out it should be for good.”

“The doctor will send the test results directly to you,” Inwoo said. “No one else needs to know, after all.” He moved to leave, but his father raised his hand to stop him.

“That Yook Dongsik,” he said, “do you think there’s any need to look into him?”

“I doubt it,” Inwoo said. “The audit team’s report—”

“I know what the report says. I want to hear your opinion.” His father tapped his fingers slowly on the armrest of his chair. “Of course, if he’s one of your people you would cover for him. I heard you promoted him.”

“He was previously passed over for promotion only because of Jihoon’s favoritism,” Inwoo said. He could see his father wasn’t happy about the answer, but Inwoo wasn’t happy about the question, so that was only fair. “He’s dedicated and loyal to his team. I promoted him because in the circumstances it helped to boost the morale of all the employees.”

The tapping of the fingers paused.

“We will see if that’s true or not.”

***

Inwoo sat in his car, leaning his forehead against the steering wheel. Meeting his father had left him in a terrible mood, even if it had gone exactly the way he had expected. Even bringing up Dongsik was something Inwoo had been prepared for. Whether it was to coddle Jihoon, despite the claim that he’d have to sort out his own problems, or to put more pressure on Inwoo, either way, it was predictable behavior for his father. But that didn’t stop it from being irritating. Jihoon was going to be out of the picture for a while, anyway. His father could just once back the hell off instead of pointlessly wasting Inwoo’s time and energy.

There was a knock on the passenger’s side window, and Inwoo straightened up as Dongsik pulled the door open and leaned down to look in.

“Did you come to see me?” Dongsik asked. “I think you’ve been here a while already.”

Inwoo stared out of his own window, resting his hands on top of the steering wheel. He wasn’t sure why he’d driven all the way to Dongsik’s place. He could have just called him.

Dongsik got into the car and closed the door.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing. Everything is going according to the plan.”

“Then why are you so stressed out?”

“I’m _not._ ”

Inwoo took a deep breath and leaned back in his seat, knowing the words had come out far too sharply to sound convincing. He had not come here to lose his composure. The important thing at the moment was to get Dongsik updated on what was going on.

“My father might put someone to keep an eye on you for a while.” There was also the possibility he’d only implied that to try to trip Inwoo up, but it wasn’t something worth risking. It was better to be cautious.

Dongsik sighed, sinking slightly in his seat.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked.

“Are you finally going to do what I say?”

“Well, I guess we’re accomplices in this now.”

At least Dongsik was finally co-operative, though Inwoo wasn’t sure what good that did at this point. Everything about his dejected demeanor said he was tired of being involved.

“You said you wanted to live quietly, so do that. I’ll handle everything else. Just keep out of trouble.”

Such a reluctant partner in crime was unlikely to be very useful, anyway. And for the time being, keeping things calm and quiet was the best solution. As long as Dongsik looked harmless, there should be no reason for anyone to suspect otherwise.

But there was also another motive for keeping Dongsik out of his family’s internal fights. One Inwoo was still struggling to put into words. Like a sense that his family could ruin… what, exactly?

“You know, about… what Bokyung saw last night,” Dongsik said.

Inwoo tensed slightly, snapping out of his thoughts. That was an interesting topic to bring up mid-morning like this.

“What about it?”

“Should I… explain it to her somehow? She definitely won’t talk about it to anyone. But I guess to someone in your position, it’s a bit… well, something to worry about.”

“Strange,” Inwoo said. “You didn’t seem to care about the consequences last night.”

Dongsik sat up sharply, turning toward him.

“You’re the one who…” He paused, biting his lip, and Inwoo couldn’t help but be amused. Dongsik had basically been ready to fight him the night before, but _this_ was what made him lose his nerve?

“I’m the one who what?”

“Never mind.” Dongsik sank back into his seat and fiddled with the cuffs of the sleeves of his coat. “In any case… I’ll think of some way to explain it. If you want.”

Inwoo smiled. It sounded like Dongsik was offering to explain it for Inwoo’s sake, and while the idea of him trying to protect Inwoo was kind of silly, somehow it felt nice. Inwoo almost wanted to ask exactly how he thought he could explain it. The situation had left little room for interpretation. But since his mood had suddenly improved significantly, maybe just this once he would be gracious enough to simply let him off the hook.

“Just leave it be. If she stays quiet, that’s enough.”

“Okay,” Dongsik said, sounding relieved.

“But isn’t your social circle a bit weird?” Inwoo asked, turning to look at him. “A police officer and a gangster neighbor. How do they fit together?”

“It just turned out like that.” Dongsik stared out of the window, avoiding his eyes.

“How?”

“Why are you so curious about that?”

“I’m curious about you.”

Dongsik went from fidgeting to sitting very still. Inwoo could almost hear him holding his breath. He leaned subtly away from Inwoo, toward the car door. Was he going to run away?

“I promised to go to my dad’s restaurant today,” Dongsik said. “Do you… have time to come over there for lunch later?”

So, not running away, then.

“I have work to do at the office,” Inwoo said. Though perhaps not so much work he wouldn’t have time to go out for lunch. But while it wasn’t terribly unusual for an assistant manager and his managing director to have lunch together, with everything that was going on, the timing could look suspicious.

“You’re going to work on Sunday?” Dongsik asked.

“Yes.”

“Then, dinner? Whenever you have time is fine.”

 _Definitely_ not running away, and apparently Dongsik was very persistent about more than just fighting him. Inwoo leaned his head against the backrest of his seat. Was he going to let an opportunity for something interesting to happen pass him by just because the timing wasn’t great?

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll let you know when I’m free.”

***

For such a low-class place, the food in Mr. Yook’s Meat Republic was quite good. Dongsik’s family was noisy and nosy, and for some strange reason, they liked to flock together. Inwoo was all charm and politeness towards them all, and when he noticed how much that irked Dongsik, he took it up another notch.

Dongsik’s father barely left them alone for long enough to have a chance for any kind of conversation. Inwoo didn’t mind that. He could see Dongsik was itching to talk to him about something, which meant he would definitely make another opportunity to talk later. And a conversation somewhere else than in the brightly lit restaurant under the eyes of his family might just turn much more interesting.

After they were done eating, Dongsik shooed his father away and ushered Inwoo towards the exit.

“I think they already like you more than they like me,” he said glumly.

At the doorway, they ran into a woman who was carrying a toddler. Dongsik sighed.

“Why are you here too?”

“I heard you brought your boss over,” she said breathlessly, and now Inwoo recognized her. Dongsik’s sister, who had been there to take Dongsik out of his hands after their adventure in Gwangju. She greeted him with a bright smile, then tilted her head.

“But have we met somewhere before?”

“You must have seen his face in the newspaper or something,” Dongsik said. “Just go. Why are you all like this?”

Inwoo realized he’d been careless. Eight years ago she had been too preoccupied to ask for details, but if she remembered him now, she would no doubt be curious about what had actually happened. And not only her, Dongsik would be the most curious of all, and he knew enough about Inwoo to not buy just any story. Inwoo was certain he could think of a good explanation, but he preferred to not have to invent lies in a rush. Fortunately, Dongsik led him out of the restaurant and closed the door on her, not giving her a chance to think.

“Sorry, I didn’t think they’d be that pushy.” Dongsik glanced back at the restaurant window, and Inwoo followed suit. Dongsik’s family was still watching them.

“Be honest,” Inwoo said. “You invited me here so you can show off to your family how well you’re doing, right?”

“Do you always think people have selfish motives?” Dongsik asked.

“People always do have selfish motives, so yes.”

“Sometimes people do things just to be nice.”

“Either to make themselves look good, or to feel good about themselves,” Inwoo said, nodding. “It’s just as selfish.”

Dongsik turned away, shaking his head.

“Can you walk with me for a bit? There’s a park over there.”

Inwoo smiled. As he had expected, there was something Dongsik wanted to talk about privately.

“Don’t you ever get tired of that fake nice Seo Inwoo act?” Dongsik asked when they were approaching the park. 

“Aren’t you getting too casual with the way you’re addressing your managing director?”

“I’m sorry, Director Seo.” It sounded like something recited out of habit, and Inwoo didn’t like how impersonal it felt.

“It’s a means to an end,” Inwoo said. “What’s there to be tired of?”

Dongsik said nothing else until they sat down on a bench in the park. The night around them was growing dark, quiet, and chilly. Inwoo rested his arm on the backrest of the bench, watching Dongsik push the gravel around with the tip of his shoe.

“So?” Inwoo said. “I assume you have something to say.”

Dongsik pulled his feet under the bench and chewed on his lower lip for a moment.

“Do you want to hear a funny story?” he asked. “Something odd happened to me eight years ago when I was in Gwangju to visit my mother’s memorial.”

Out of all the ways Inwoo could imagine a funny story to start, this was not one.

“I still don’t know what actually happened,” Dongsik said, “but back then, my sister told me the person who brought me home seemed really nice, so that’s what I thought, for a long time. That whatever happened, fortunately I ran into someone who was just so nice he went out of his way to help me when I was in trouble. Isn’t that funny?”

There was no hint of amusement in his voice. Rather, he sounded almost bitter. He glanced at Inwoo and seemed to wait for some kind of response, but when there was none, he sighed.

“Well, I guess the whole point of fake nice Seo Inwoo is to make people believe that.”

Inwoo closed his eyes. The evening certainly had turned interesting, but not the way he had wanted. He really would have needed that good explanation he didn’t have.

“And?” he said. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Actually, I already knew before that night at the construction site that you’re different from what I had thought, but… Well, everything was already going wrong, even Bokyung said I was being too nice, and my dad was really on my case about how useless I was. So when you showed up and said all those things, it really hit me. _This_ is the person I thought helped me. Everyone else must be right. Being nice or believing in people is really a big mistake.”

Inwoo opened his eyes again. Dongsik was staring at the ground with a dark expression of his face. So there it was, the reason for all that anger and resentment Inwoo had felt directed at him. But while it made sense Dongsik didn’t like being deceived, the extent of his reaction was a bit out of proportion. They had only met for a moment. It wasn’t like Inwoo had cheated him out of his money, or something.

“That’s why I thought I should do the same,” Dongsik said. “Just handle things my way and not care if someone gets hurt. But that was a worse mistake. At least I shouldn’t have gotten Chilsung involved. I can’t have him end up in jail because of me.”

“If you don’t care if someone gets hurt that shouldn’t be a problem,” Inwoo said.

“That’s what I mean. I can’t _not_ care, so…” Dongsik took a deep breath. “So can you not make things more difficult for me? I’m not the kind of person who would be useful to you, anyway.”

Inwoo pulled his arm away, turning to face to the front. So much for being accomplices, or whatever Dongsik had said in the morning. If all he wanted was to cut himself cleanly free, he could have just said so without making Inwoo spend his valuable time to come all this way.

“Didn’t I already say you can just keep living quietly?”

“If you really mean that, I’m grateful.”

“You still haven’t told me what the deal is with that Chilsung,” Inwoo said. If nothing else, he should at least get some of his questions answered. Otherwise he had gained nothing but a mood even worse than the one he had had after meeting his father in the morning.

Dongsik was quiet for a moment, then turned to face him.

“If I tell you that, will you tell me something I want to know?”

Inwoo turned his head to meet his eyes. Dongsik didn’t look that sullen anymore, but more like he was hungry for answers.

“Like what?” Inwoo asked.

“Like what happened in Gwangju back then?”

Breaking the eye contact, Inwoo got up from the bench.

“No.”

“See?” Dongsik said, following him. “You have your secrets, so I’ll keep mine.”

Inwoo started to walk toward the exit of the park. He suspected Dongsik’s secrets weren’t quite on the level of his own. But then again, how sure could he really be? Despite of Dongsik’s innocent act, there were still a lot of unanswered questions. For one, what had he actually been up to back in July? Inwoo hadn’t thought about it until now, but when they had met right outside the restaurant back then, Dongsik had shown no sign of recognizing him. Had he not known who he was back then? Was there a way to find out without drawing attention to another incident Inwoo didn’t want to answer any questions about? He slowed down, letting Dongsik catch up with him.

“Since when have you known it was me who brought you home back then?” he asked.

“I think about a week after I started working in the company. You were there with the chairman.”

Then he should have known in July. Had he pretended not to? But if he had, why wouldn’t he try to hide it now? Inwoo shook his head slightly. Maybe the moment had simply passed so fast Dongsik hadn’t paid attention to who he had almost walked into.

“So you remembered me?” Inwoo asked. “That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“How? It was years later.”

Dongsik shrugged.

“I just did.”

“I suppose you couldn’t forget,” Inwoo said. “I get it. I see myself in the mirror every day.” Did it make any sense that he could walk into Inwoo and not recognize him? Not being able to figure it out was maddening.

“What?” Dongsik sounded amused. “Maybe you don’t remember, but back then you were more just… cute.”

Inwoo slowed down. With that face, he had the audacity to accuse others of being cute?

“So, is that your type?” Inwoo asked. “Cute and really nice?” This line of questioning wasn’t helping him make any conclusions. Dongsik kept distracting him from the things he should have stayed focused on. He needed time to think, somewhere quiet, somewhere away.

Dongsik wrapped his coat tighter around himself.

“Can you stop making fun of me?”

But he didn’t deny it. Maybe cute and seemingly nice Inwoo had really left a lasting impression. Maybe that was why Dongsik had been kissing him like that. Maybe that was why he had gotten so angry when the illusion had been shattered. It wasn’t odd if he was so taken with ‘fake nice Seo Inwoo’ as he had put it. Many people were. That was the point. There should have been no reason for Inwoo to be bothered by that. But he was.

Inwoo stopped.

“Why do you think I’m making fun of you?”

Dongsik, who had ended up a few steps ahead, stopped as well and turned around. Inwoo walked slowly up to him. There was something Dongsik had said the night before. That Inwoo was too intense. So he would give him a taste of intense, to let him know what he was missing out on.

“Last night…” he said, reaching out to adjust the collar of Dongsik’s coat, “… what do you think that was?”

Dongsik stood still, blinking.

“Or…” Inwoo slid his hand from the collar behind Dongsik’s neck and stepped closer. “Was that only pretending to you?”

Dongsik turned his face downward. He hesitated for a moment before he replied.

“No.”

Inwoo ran his fingers up the back of Dongsik’s neck and smiled at the way he tensed. Despite the tension, Dongsik leaned subtly closer to him. He could be so fierce and stubborn, but then so sensitive about things like this. Inwoo had an inkling that wound up just right he would be an awful lot of fun.

The quiet moment was disrupted by laughter and talking somewhere on the street outside the park. Dongsik backed away, but Inwoo pulled him back, even closer this time, his lips almost brushing against his ear.

“Why are you running away?”

Dongsik settled down but glanced nervously toward the street.

“Those people—”

“Don’t matter,” Inwoo said. Maybe they mattered, but Inwoo cared more about finding out if Dongsik had any taste for danger. He lifted Dongsik’s chin gently with his hand to the level of his own. For a moment it seemed Dongsik forgot about everything else. He closed his eyes, and while Inwoo had not yet decided if he would actually kiss him, Dongsik evidently had.

So he did. Just softly. But just as Inwoo was certain he definitely wanted to see where this would go, the people on the street got louder. Startled, Dongsik pulled back again.

A few steps back the way they had come, the pathway curved past a spot where the trees and the tall fence surrounding the park created an almost cozy nook with the wall of the building beside it. Inwoo caught Dongsik by the sleeve and pulled him into the cozy corner. He pushed Dongsik against the wall in the shadow of a tree and stepped close enough that there was barely any space between them. 

“Better?” he asked.

If Dongsik had an answer it was drowned by Inwoo kissing him again. This was the only question Inwoo wanted answered right now. What would happen if no one interrupted them after only a few seconds?

He paused for a moment, lips only an inch away from Dongsik’s, and moved his hand back on Dongsik’s neck where it had settled so naturally before. Dongsik, with his eyes closed, leaned lightly against his palm.

Inwoo tilted his head and sought Dongsik’s lips with his own again, more demanding this time, but still holding back. There was no rush. Whatever it would take, he was determined to coax out the same intensity Dongsik had been kissing him with the previous night. He wouldn’t let fake nice Seo Inwoo have all of it.

Slowly he felt it working. Dongsik warmed up and rather than only reacting to what Inwoo did, started to have ideas of his own. His hands ended up on Inwoo’s waist under his coat. Inwoo had the errant thought that he rather liked it when Dongsik tried to take control. Which was absurd, because Inwoo would never give it away.

Yet _possibly_ it was at Dongsik’s initiative that the kiss got even deeper and tongues got involved. Inwoo caressed his neck with his fingers, and Dongsik made an adorable small noise against his mouth. He pulled Inwoo tighter against him, and Inwoo had to lean on the wall for support to not lose his balance. From there, things definitely got more intense.

So, Dongsik liked the neck thing. Inwoo craved to find out what else he would like if it made him react this way. Maybe he should have taken him home with him in the first place, instead of starting this here where the location put limitations on how far things could go. This could get so good. If only…

Eventually they had to stop to breathe. Dongsik leaned his forehead on Inwoo’s shoulder and cuddled close to him as if he needed to keep warm. Inwoo was more than warm enough. There was the warmth of the physical closeness, and of being kind of turned on.

But underneath it was something else. A strange kind of warmth that made him feel content just holding Dongsik close and listening to him breathe. And it made him want to forget this wasn’t going to work.

A warning bell sounded in Inwoo’s head. He kept losing his focus. He knew better than to start anything with someone who was bound to become a problem. Dongsik was already a problem. With him, Inwoo forgot to be on his guard. All the things he liked about Dongsik were precisely the reason he wouldn’t be able to keep secrets from him if he let him get any closer. He was dangerous to keep around.

Dongsik was still warm against him, but Inwoo was starting to feel cold. For a moment he buried his face into Dongsik’s hair. Annoying poodle hair. Why did it feel so good?

Afraid he would again forget what he should do, Inwoo took a step back. Dongsik let go of him reluctantly.

“Which do you think this is? Real or fake?”

Startled by the change in Inwoo’s tone, Dongsik looked up.

“What?”

“You can’t even tell, right?” Inwoo tilted his head. “See, you’re in way over your head.”

Perhaps Dongsik didn’t understand what had just happened, but his expression revealed he could tell this wasn’t fun and games anymore. Inwoo knew it wasn’t necessary to be quite this mean, but considering how far things had already gone, it was better to make a clean, sharp cut. This time being nice would only turn things messier.

“You don’t want me to make things difficult, so I will make it very easy for you,” Inwoo said. “Just stay out of my way.”

Leaving the confused Dongsik alone where he was, Inwoo walked away. He tried to ignore the strangling feeling in his throat that was both cold and burning all at once.

Whatever momentary confusion it was, it would fade away.


	10. Chapter 10

2019 - November

For a while, life fell into a quiet routine. All in all, things were going very smoothly for Inwoo. His father accepted the drug test results without a fight, and Jihoon was sent quietly abroad. It would probably take months before bringing him back would be even considered. And if Inwoo’s father had decided to dig into Dongsik, nothing happened on that front either.

Meanwhile, Dongsik had gone from cold and distant to downright frosty. Of course, that was to be expected. What was unexpected was that every time Inwoo was reminded of that, no matter how well everything else was going, he felt like he had lost something. In the office, everything had to look like nothing had happened, and ignoring the icy tension between the two of them while maintaining the image of a perfect boss was getting exhausting.

Remembering Dongsik had said something about his mother in Gwangju, Inwoo had looked into that. Dead birth mother. Stepmother and a younger half-brother. It was ironic how the setup was so similar to his own, and yet it was still completely different.

And he had thought about, perhaps too much, the mystery of why he was so drawn to Dongsik. In truth, it did make sense. Dongsik was a new kind of challenge. He couldn’t be easily bought, or manipulated, or even scared into obedience. Other people were so easy and predictable they were boring.

But there were too many questions. What did Dongsik really know? How did he know what he did know? Trying to figure it all out, and trying to control the uncomfortable feeling in his throat, Inwoo had managed to get six of his throwing knives so deeply lodged into the wooden wall of his secret room that he couldn’t pull them out again.

Aware that he was making no progress obsessing over it, he buried himself in work. It was important to keep his plans in motion. Even if Jihoon was out for the moment, he shouldn’t get complacent. And there was no better cure for anything, than making small victories in securing his position as the company’s successor.

Focused on that, one November Sunday he attended the funeral of a family member of one of the company’s most important clients. It took a tiresome amount of buttering up grouchy old men, but he could practically taste their impression of him reaching new levels of favorable. His performance was flawless. Not a single aspect out of line. He felt rather good leaving the funeral. This was what he was made for, after all, to control others like puppets.

He had barely finished that thought when turning a corner in the hallway he nearly collided with Dongsik, who was hurriedly backing away from something without looking where he was going.

“I’m sor…” Dongsik turned around, and the apology turned into a scowl.

Inwoo sighed. He was being punished for thinking things were going well, wasn’t he?

Bokyung appeared into the hallway from a corridor to the left. Dongsik winced, and she gave him a stern look.

“Don’t even think about it,” she said, then took out her phone to make a call while walking away. Dongsik moved to leave, but Inwoo placed his hand on his shoulder and pulled him back.

“What are you up to now?” Inwoo asked. “This doesn’t look like living quietly.”

Dongsik didn’t look at him, but after a moment’s silence, he grasped the lapel of Inwoo’s coat.

“If you want to know, come with me.”

Inwoo followed him mostly out of curiosity. If Dongsik was causing trouble, he should find out what it was about. Dongsik led him to the entrance of one of the funeral rooms, where a young police officer was standing idly. When he saw them, he stepped in front of the doorway.

“Are you a reporter?” the police officer asked Dongsik. “Officer Shim specifically said to keep you out.”

“Assistant Manager Yook Dongsik from Daehan Securities,” Dongsik said. “And this is our Managing Director, Seo Inwoo.”

“Daehan…” The police officer shot a nervous glance at Inwoo. “Seo?”

“Yes,” Dongsik said, “ _that_ Seo.” He nudged Inwoo with his elbow. Inwoo sighed inwardly and handed the police officer his business card. What was he getting himself into now?

“You won’t tell him he can’t visit a funeral for a client’s family, right?” Dongsik said.

The police officer read the card and shook his head.

“But you…” he started, and Dongsik gave Inwoo another poignant nudge.

“I need him with me,” Inwoo said.

“I… I see.” The police officer let them through, looking defeated. Inwoo felt almost sorry for Bokyung. She probably hadn’t counted for her arrangements to be so easily overruled by the Seo family’s power.

“I knew it,” Dongsik muttered scornfully after they had walked past him. “You get away with anything just by using your name.”

Inwoo leaned closer to him.

“You’re obviously using that name for something, too, so shouldn’t you be a bit nicer to me?”

“The way you’re nice to the people you use?”

Inwoo didn’t get a chance to respond to the scathing remark, as the man who had been sitting on the floor of the funeral room stood up and walked over to them.

Beyond the usual appropriate platitudes, Inwoo let Dongsik do the talking. It wasn’t like he knew what was going on, or whose funeral this even was. He glanced at the portrait on the altar. Presumably the man’s wife. The man himself seemed like a pathetic, toady sort of fellow. If he really was a client, he definitely wasn’t one Inwoo could imagine Dongsik wanting to get his claws on this desperately, so it was unlikely this was about work. Although, while Inwoo couldn’t quite place what it was, something was off about this man.

While Dongsik chatted with him, Inwoo picked up the basic facts. His name was Nam Sung Chul. His wife, a nurse, had committed suicide while he had been on a fishing trip. Dongsik was very curious about the details of the week leading to her death, but Inwoo found nothing interesting about the story, so he soon stopped listening. He wondered how long Dongsik would insist on staying.

Getting bored waiting and not paying attention to the actual conversation, he noticed something curious. Nam Sung Chul’s portrayal of a grieving husband was too perfect, following the same pattern over and over, and completely lacking the messiness of genuine human emotions. That was what was off about him. It was just an act. No doubt there were countless people who didn’t care when their spouse died, but someone putting that much effort into pretending to care was something worth noting. Of course, Inwoo knew all about needing to conform to the expected and acceptable behavior. He also knew it wasn’t a simple thing to be good at faking it.

After a while, Dongsik ran out of questions to ask. Inwoo still didn’t quite get what he was after, but he was relieved they were finally leaving.

When they stepped out of the room, they found Bokyung leaning her back on the wall with her arms crossed, having sent the inefficient younger police officer away. But it didn’t seem like Dongsik was going to be in big trouble for defying her. The look she gave him was something akin to scolding a child who had been hoarding candy.

Dongsik glanced back to make sure Nam Sung Chul wasn’t close enough to hear.

“I’m sorry,” he said a bit sheepishly, “but he’s a client, so it was necessary. Isn’t that right, Director Seo?”

Inwoo smiled at Bokyung. His willingness to let Dongsik control him ended here.

“No, it wasn’t.”

Bokyung gave Dongsik a rueful look.

“At least I’m a bit reassured you finally have someone sensible by your side,” she said.

“Right,” Inwoo said softly, turning to Dongsik, who was staring impassively at the wall. “Shouldn’t you just listen to me?”

They _had_ agreed there was no need to explain things to Bokyung, but it was still surprising that Dongsik had evidently told her nothing at all. Since there was no one but the three of them in the corridor, Inwoo reached out to brush his finger gently against Dongsik’s cheek. Dongsik tolerated the gesture without flinching, and that almost took the fun out of teasing him. He turned to look at Inwoo with a soft smile on his face. He really was quite good at pretending when he wanted to.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I haven’t forgotten what you said.”

Inwoo looked away. Even this game wasn’t fun anymore.

“I’m sorry, I need to talk to Bokyung about something,” Dongsik said.

“That’s fine. I have things to do, anyway.” In fact, for once Inwoo didn’t have anything in particular to do for the rest of the day. But there was no other way to respond to the obvious sentiment of being kicked out of the group after he had filled his purpose.

He walked back into the main hall. His previously good mood had been disrupted enough that he didn’t know what to do to change it. But it seemed the universe was determined to make him feel even worse. His father walked across the hall, and gritting his teeth, Inwoo went to greet him. He had purposefully come to the funeral early, hoping to avoid this encounter.

“I see you’ve been efficient,” his father said. “You got here before I did. You’re acting like the successor already.”

It wasn’t praise, it was a reminder Inwoo shouldn’t get carried away. As if his efforts weren’t entirely beneficial for the family and the whole company. When Inwoo said nothing, as he saw no point in trying to defend being _just that good_ , his father gave him a stony look and walked away. Inwoo was surprised at how little inclination he felt to pretend to please his father this time. Maybe Dongsik’s disrespect was rubbing off on him.

And thinking of Dongsik, he wondered if he should tell him to watch out for his father while he was here. There was nothing noteworthy about visiting a funeral, but in the company of a police officer Dongsik might stand out too much.

Inwoo returned to the corridor he had left them in. They were gone, however, and the only person left was Nam Sung Chul, who was picking up the funeral room’s nameplate that had fallen on the floor. Judging by the dark boot-print on it, someone had stepped on it. Nam Sung Chul sneered.

“Serves you right, you…”

He looked up and saw Inwoo, his expression flickering from disdain back to sorrow. Inwoo only smiled pleasantly and walked past him. Maybe this guy was a little bit good, but he was too careless. Probably the type to let it go to his head, not able to resist a chance to gloat.

Inwoo was about to call Dongsik when passing by a window he saw Bokyung outside getting into a police car. That danger was over then. A bit further, Dongsik was walking away. But rather than heading to the street, he was going into the garden.

Inwoo lingered by the window for a moment. He had no actual reason to go after Dongsik. On the other hand, he _should_ get some answers about why Dongsik had wanted to visit that funeral so badly. He had used Inwoo’s identity, and that wasn’t something that should be ignored so easily. His father was unlikely to have any reason to visit the garden, so there would be no risk in talking there for a moment.

He circled around to the exit and walked into the garden. After a while, he found Dongsik sitting on a bench with a small dog at his feet. Inwoo frowned. From random funerals to random dogs, Dongsik sure had interesting ways to keep himself busy.

“What’s with the dog?” Inwoo asked, walking over to him. “Did you steal it?”

The dog flattened its ears, watching Inwoo approach. Dongsik glanced at Inwoo and bent down to pet it.

“I’m just looking after it while the owner is inside. Why would I steal a dog?”

“Who knows? You do a lot of strange things.” Despite the less than warm greeting, Inwoo sat down beside him.

“What was that funeral visit about?” he asked. “I think I should know what my name is being used for.”

“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Dongsik said, still paying more attention to the dog than Inwoo. “I want to help Bokyung a bit, that’s all.”

“By asking questions about some woman’s suicide? She didn’t seem to want your help.”

“She’s just worried about me. I happened to see some of her notes. She thinks it wasn’t a suicide.”

“So, murder?” Inwoo asked. “Why are you trying to help with a murder investigation? I’m quite certain you work in finances, not law enforcement.”

“I’m just a bit interested.” Dongsik looked distracted, frowning at the dog thoughtfully. Then suddenly he straightened up. “But wasn’t it strange what Nam Sung Chul said about the day he left for his fishing trip?”

“What did he say? I didn’t listen.” Inwoo glared at the dog that had moved to sniff at his shoe.

“Never mind.” Dongsik picked the dog up, setting it down on his lap. “The strange thing is that I’m even talking to you.”

The dog eyed Inwoo warily, and Dongsik scratched it affectionately under its chin.

“You’re smarter than me, aren’t you?” he cooed to the dog. “You can tell when people can’t be trusted.”

“Shouldn’t your tell your dog-friend the truth?” Inwoo said. “I remember hearing you’re the one who’s a bad influence.”

Dongsik looked puzzled for a moment, then smiled slightly.

“Ah, what Bokyung’s father said that time in the coffee shop?”

“What was that about, anyway?” Inwoo asked. “What did you do to Detective Shim and his dogs?”

Dongsik looked away, moving even the dog further from Inwoo.

“Why are you still curious about things like that? You told me to stay out of your way.”

Inwoo leaned back on the bench. At least he had been very successful at distancing Dongsik from himself. He should just leave things as they were. Nothing had changed, after all. But maybe one more moment wouldn’t hurt.

“Shouldn’t you repay me for using my name today? I can overlook that if your story is interesting enough.”

“Fine,” Dongsik said. “It’s nothing that matters, anyway. I used to walk their dogs, just for fun. Until I got the dogs in trouble.”

“You got _the dogs_ in trouble? How?”

“It was in April, I think. I was out with them pretty late at night when I noticed there was this man just sitting on the sidewalk. I thought the dogs might get scared if he was drunk, so I left them tied up in a fence and went to ask him if I should call him a taxi. I guess the dogs got scared of something else meanwhile, so they escaped from their collars and ran under the fence into the garden on the other side.”

Unlike the story about Gwangju, evidently this story was actually funny to Dongsik, whose expression had turned increasingly more amused as the story went on. Then he glanced at Inwoo, and the smile faded slowly.

“Um, anyway,” he said, rubbing his neck with his palm, “it got pretty chaotic, and the old woman whose garden it was ended up in a hospital. She’s fine, though, I even visited her at the hospital. But since they’re Bokyung’s father’s dogs, he had to apologize to her, and he wasn’t happy about that, so in the end, he told me I’m never allowed to take the dogs out for a walk again.”

Inwoo barely listened to the end of the story. He had realized something else. Two dogs that got loose in the garden of an old woman in April. Just like the fourth time Inwoo’s planned murder had fallen through. The details matched too well for it to be a coincidence.

But with the carefree way Dongsik was telling the story, he clearly had no clue how their paths had crossed. Which made sense. He shouldn’t have a clue. But he also shouldn’t be able to just randomly keep getting in Inwoo’s way like this. Counting July and April, and way back in Gwangju, that was three times already. And the times between? Inwoo had no idea, but he wouldn’t be surprised anymore if that was the case.

“What are you?” he asked.

Dongsik blinked.

“What?”

Inwoo looked away. Had he already forgotten? The weird chaos Dongsik dragged with him everywhere. At this point, he should just accept it as a law of nature and stop trying to understand. Besides, after Dongsik had gotten involved with the situation with Jihoon, things had turned out quite well for Inwoo. Maybe he wasn’t always a misfortune.

And another strange thing was that even if Dongsik was being less than friendly toward him, after spending a few moments in his company, Inwoo felt like he could finally breathe again.

“Why do you walk dogs for fun?” Inwoo asked to steer the conversation back to something harmless.

“They’re cute,” Dongsik said.

“And? That’s the reason?”

“Does there need to be a reason?” Dongsik looked at the dog on his lap as if it could give him the answer. “I guess it’s just… spending time with them makes me feel better.”

Inwoo smiled to himself. Cute and made him feel better?

“You fit right in with them, then,” he said.

Dongsik frowned as if he was trying to parse the meaning of his words.

“Be careful of that guy at the funeral if you’re going to keep looking into his wife’s death,” Inwoo said. “He’s not what he seems.”

“What…” Dongsik started, then paused. “Wait. Are you worried about me?”

“Yes.” Inwoo stood up to leave. “I’m worried you’ll get mixed with something that will drag the company’s image down.”

“You’re not going to the office, right?” Dongsik said. “You’ve been there every weekend. Go home and rest.”

Inwoo turned around. Why had Dongsik noticed that?

“Are _you_ worried about me?” he asked.

Dongsik turned his attention to the dog again.

“Yes,” he said sullenly.

Inwoo felt as if his feet had suddenly grown heavier, making it much harder to turn and walk away. Dongsik really wasn’t an easy opponent. He had all kinds of tricks to use against him.

“Are you sure it’s me you worry about?” Inwoo asked. “Not the fake one?”

Now Dongsik looked genuinely lost.

“What?”

Inwoo sighed.

“Don’t get this dog in trouble, too,” he said. “I admit, he is a bit cute.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my apologies to Nam Sung Chul's wife who had to die again. RIP.


	11. Chapter 11

A few days later, Inwoo’s father came to visit the office. It was yet another predictable thing. His father could never resist a chance to snoop into what Inwoo was doing. There was nothing for him to find but a very efficiently managed office, of course, and soon enough he gave up. On his way out, he stopped to give a harsh glance at Dongsik, who looked like he was trying to shrink out of existence as a result.

Inwoo walked his father to the elevator, eager to see him get the hell out. His father turned to look at him with his usual cold smile.

“I’m assured you will manage things adequately until Jihoon comes back.”

After sending him off, Inwoo headed back to his office seething quietly. _Adequately?_ His father had evidently taken it upon himself to ruin his mood at every opportunity while Jihoon wasn’t around to do that.

Usually, Inwoo paid little heed to the pointless chatter that went on in the office’s break room, but this time the words he heard passing by caught his attention.

“Why would they bring him back? After what he did to Dongsik?”

Inwoo stopped in his tracks. So, someone had heard what his father had said at the elevator. That may even have been intentional on his father’s part, just to humiliate him. The gossip died down when Inwoo stepped into the room.

“Yook Dongsik,” he said, and Dongsik looked up wide-eyed. “Come see me in my office.”

“Is something wrong?” Dongsik asked after closing the door to Inwoo’s office behind him.

Inwoo, who had waited for him a few steps away from the door, inclined his head in the direction of the break room.

“What are they saying?”

Dongsik gave him a perplexed look.

“Why are you worried about that?”

“I don’t worry. I want to stay informed.”

“They’re wondering if the chairman has lost his mind,” Dongsik said. “They all know you’re doing a much better job than your brother.”

“That’s good, then.” Inwoo walked across the room to his desk. He knew he should send Dongsik back to his work, but more than anything, he wanted him to do that strange magic of making him feel better again.

“Should I just quit?” Dongsik asked.

“What?” Inwoo turned around. This didn’t sound like something that would improve his mood.

“The chairman knows something, doesn’t he?” Dongsik said. “Well, rather than I quit, you can put all the blame on me and fire me. Wouldn’t that solve everything?”

“No, it wouldn’t,” Inwoo said. “Why are you so eager to throw your job away?”

“I’m just tired of this.” Dongsik turned to look down at the floor.

“You think you’re tired?” Inwoo sat down on the edge of his desk, facing the window. He hadn’t forgotten Dongsik had been like this already weeks ago. But seeing him so spiritless was doing the opposite of making him feel better.

Dongsik sighed and walked up to his side.

“You know we’re having a team dinner tomorrow, right?” Dongsik said. “You should come, too.”

“Why?”

“To relax. Is it any wonder if you’re tired? You work too much.”

“How would that be relaxing?” Inwoo asked. “With the employees there I have to be nice Inwoo. It’s just more work.”

“Didn’t you say you don’t get tired of that.”

Inwoo bristled at the realization that was how it should have been.

“Strangely enough, you managed to change that,” he said. Nice Inwoo had become a chore and an annoyance. That was a problem.

“Okay,” Dongsik said sharply, turning away. “I’ll go back to work, then.”

“Did I say you can leave?” Inwoo turned so he could see him, and Dongsik spun around on the spot, now clearly mad.

“What do you want from me?” Dongsik asked, exasperated. “Was this what you meant? I’m like a dog, so you can tell me to come and go as you please?”

Inwoo turned back toward the window. Pointing out the fact that it was naturally up to him to decide when people left his office after being called in was probably a bad idea.

“This is exhausting, right?” Dongsik said. “I thought we could at least get along as co-workers. But why am I even the one making the effort? _I_ did nothing wrong.”

He paused to breathe.

“Can I go now?”

Inwoo didn’t want to let him go, but there was little else he could do. Nice Seo Inwoo could think of many things to say to soothe him, but Dongsik would know they weren’t true. After putting so much effort into keeping him away, real Inwoo definitely couldn’t say he wanted to keep him close.

“Yes, go.”

Dongsik marched out of the office with such temper that Inwoo expected him to slam the door behind him, but he closed it very politely. Inwoo couldn’t help but smile, although there should have been nothing to smile about in the circumstances. Dongsik could be emotional, but he was still sensible about which lines to cross. It was almost too precious.

***

The restaurant Team Leader Gong had picked for the team dinner was the kind Inwoo was unlikely to ever step into voluntarily. It was loud and cheap, and perhaps it had been picked because it appealed to some weird office workers’ need to distance themselves from the corporate world every once in a while. Wavering outside, Inwoo wondered which one of them was going to regret this more — the team leader after Inwoo showed up, or Inwoo himself for showing up.

Bracing himself, he stepped in. The employees had been drinking for a while already, and the mood had turned relaxed and casual. Dongsik was sitting with a half-empty glass of beer in front of him. Unlike everyone else, he didn’t seem to be in very high spirits.

Team Leader Gong spotted Inwoo and sprang up from his seat.

“Director Seo! I didn’t think you were coming.”

“I was passing by, so I thought I’d stop in and see how you’re doing.” Inwoo turned his eyes away from Dongsik, who had looked up. “Don’t mind me. Just relax and have a good time.”

“Stay for a while, at least,” the team leader said with a glazed look in his eyes.

“Oh, well, I guess I can spare a few minutes.”

Inwoo tolerated the next half an hour mostly by watching Dongsik, who didn’t touch his beer at all, and only exchanged a few words with Jaeho, who was sitting by his side. Meanwhile, the team leader got increasingly more drunk and insufferable and was evidently somehow forming the impression he was getting into Inwoo’s good graces. Eventually, Jaeho left the table and Inwoo moved to take over the empty seat next to Dongsik.

“I thought you didn’t want to come,” Dongsik said without looking at him.

“Since my father made everyone nervous, I need to show them nothing is wrong,” Inwoo said. Maybe there was even a bit of truth in that. But his primary mission was to make Dongsik stop being so gloomy he dragged Inwoo’s own spirit down with him. Whether it was even possible for the two of them to just get along remained to be seen, but something had to change.

The upside of the noisy restaurant was that it was possible to have an almost private conversation as long as they kept their voices down. Inwoo moved closer to Dongsik to shut out all the unnecessary people around them. He took a clean soju glass from the center of the table, plopped it in Dongsik’s hands, and poured him a drink.

Dongsik gave him a dubious glance.

“Stop thinking about quitting,” Inwoo said. “My father is just using his usual trick of testing what you’ll do if he makes you nervous. So do nothing.”

“Would he give up that easily?” Dongsik asked.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Inwoo said. “If he tries to cause trouble, I’ll handle it.”

Dongsik emptied the glass in one go, grimacing at the alcohol burning his throat. He held onto the glass, turning it around in his hands with a closed up expression on his face.

Inwoo drummed his fingers idly on the table. Perhaps it would have been strange if it was that simple to cheer Dongsik up. What more could he do? They didn’t really have a lot of topics they could talk about that weren’t a minefield of things better not brought up.

“Or were you really considering a career change?” Inwoo asked. “Have you made any progress with the case you were playing detective with?”

“Bokyung did,” Dongsik said, finally setting the glass back on the table. “They’re now investigating it as a murder. She has a suspect, too.”

“Is it the husband?”

Dongsik perked up and turned to look at Inwoo properly.

“No.”

“Suspect? Husband?” Jaeho returned to the table looking confused. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing,” Dongsik said. “Just a TV-show.”

“Oh, right, you’re really into crime shows. Director Seo, do you watch them, too?”

“Just this one,” Inwoo said, smiling.

“I see.” Jaeho looked around the table. “Where did I put my phone?” He left again to search for his phone, and Dongsik immediately leaned closer to Inwoo.

“Why are you so suspicious of the husband? You saw how heartbroken he was at the funeral.”

“He wasn’t,” Inwoo said. “It was just an act.”

“Really?” Dongsik turned to stare at the empty glass in front of him with brows furrowed. Inwoo could almost hear the wheels turning in his head.

“But how do you know that?” Dongsik tilted his head and looked at Inwoo thoughtfully. “Is it because you do the same?”

“No,” Inwoo said, pouring him another drink. “I’m _much_ better at it.”

Dongsik looked amused as he turned to sip from his glass. Inwoo smiled slightly. This was much better than the sulking Dongsik.

“Hey, Dongsik,” Jaeho said, returning with his phone in his hand. “What do you think of a blind date?”

“What?” Dongsik struggled to swallow his drink.

“My wife said to ask if you’d be interested in meeting someone she knows.”

Inwoo resisted the urge to glare at him. What was it with the people in this office and their insistence on trying to pair Dongsik up with someone? He didn’t generally mind Jaeho, who was easy to manage, and even easier to ignore. But right now he was quickly climbing to the top of Inwoo’s list of people to get rid of.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Inwoo said, ignoring the sideways glance Dongsik gave him. “Right now he has too many other things to think about.”

Dongsik coughed, rubbing his throat with his fingers.

“Director, you really put career before everything, don’t you?” Jaeho said. “I guess that must be why you’re so successful.”

Team Leader Gong, who had been hanging his head over his drink on the other side of the table, suddenly sprang to life.

“No, that’s not right,” he said. “Career is important, of course, but everyone needs more than that.”

He leaned over the table, looking at Inwoo almost tearfully.

“Is there really no one in your life?”

Inwoo found himself strangely tongue-tied. This kind of question should have been easy to answer by making up whatever suited the situation best. It wasn’t like these people would ever know if it was true or not. But now, with Dongsik sitting by his side, every possible answer seemed like the wrong one.

Dongsik cleared his throat.

“Team leader, is your family still abroad?” he asked. “You must really miss them.”

The team leader went from tearful to actually crying, and Dongsik spent the next several minutes consoling him. Inwoo slipped out at the first opportunity. The situation was getting too loud and suffocating.

He stopped to breathe the chilly air outside. At least Dongsik had ended up in a better mood. If they could stop having their quiet war in the office, perhaps this had been worth it.

“You’re leaving?”

Inwoo glanced over his shoulder to find Dongsik standing in the doorway.

“Yes, before someone asks me more pointless personal questions,” Inwoo said. “You should go back in and drink. Think of it as using my father’s money to get some extra compensation.” He started to walk slowly toward his car.

“Can I ask you something?” Dongsik asked, catching up with him. “It’s kind of personal question, though.”

“What is it?”

“Why do you put so much effort into acting so different from how you really are?”

“What else am I supposed to do?” Inwoo asked. How was this _kind of_ personal question? It was extremely personal. “I already learned as a child that cliches like ‘just be yourself’ don’t apply to someone like me.”

Dongsik slowed down.

“You’ve been doing this since you were a child?”

“More or less.”

Dongsik followed Inwoo quietly the rest of the way to his car.

“I can’t even imagine that,” Dongsik said when Inwoo stopped beside the car and turned around to face him. “Isn’t that really… lonely?”

“Are you trying to make me less lonely?” Inwoo asked. “Is that why you followed me? Do you want to come to my place with me?” On the off chance Dongsik said yes, maybe he would follow through with that. Just this once. Maybe spending one night together was what it would take to get Dongsik out of his head.

Dongsik’s expression grew serious and closed up again.

“When I said we should get along as co-workers, that’s what I meant. Nothing more.”

To Inwoo, that should have been a relief. It seemed like an ideal solution — they wouldn’t have to avoid each other and yet there would be no risk of things getting complicated. But he couldn’t deny the pang of disappointment he felt. Not that he was going to let Dongsik in on that.

“Can’t co-workers have a few drinks and watch TV or something?” Inwoo smiled. “What did you think I meant? Your imagination seems to run a bit wild.”

“Yes, of course, it must be just me,” Dongsik said, his tone gaining a sharper edge again. “It’s not at all you acting like you can’t make up your mind.”

Inwoo was certain he had made up his mind, weeks ago. But while making Dongsik angry on purpose had worked perfectly to keep him away, in the end, it hadn’t solved the problem. Why were things not happening the way he had expected?

“Didn’t you say we should get along?” he said. “Why are you picking a fight?”

“I know.” Dongsik sighed, looking away. He seemed to be talking to himself more than anything. “Why do you get on my nerves so easily?”

Inwoo watched him, leaning on his car. Their getting along was off to a great start. Was there really any way this would ever work?

Dongsik stared down at his feet for a moment, then turned to look at Inwoo with a thoughtful expression.

“Can you tell me anything else about Nam Sung Chul?” he asked.

“No. It was just something I noticed.”

Dongsik nodded, chewing on his lip.

“If the chairman is keeping an eye on me, is it a bad idea if I look into it more?”

“Is that what it takes to keep you happy?” Inwoo asked. He would have preferred for his father to get the impression of Dongsik as nothing but a normal office worker with normal hobbies. Investigating a murder didn’t exactly fit into that picture. But Dongsik obviously needed some kind of outlet to tolerate everything, and at least this one thing gave them something harmless to talk about.

“Just be careful,” he said. “Don’t do anything crazy and reckless like you did with Jihoon.”

“Okay,” Dongsik said briskly.

Inwoo kept watching him as he stood still, his eyes idly scanning the surroundings. Why was he stalling if he had nothing else to say? Then again, why was Inwoo himself not leaving?

The silence was broken by Dongsik’s phone buzzing in his pocket. He turned away to answer the call.

“What is it?” Dongsik listened silently for a moment. “What? Okay, I’m on my way.”

He turned to Inwoo, about to say something, but then stopped before even starting, his eyes flickering to Inwoo’s car.

“You didn’t drink,” he said. “Can you give me a ride somewhere?”

“Am I a taxi?” Inwoo asked.

“I really need to get there fast. And taking a taxi is a bit…” Dongsik looked hesitant.

“How is that my problem?”

“It’s not,” Dongsik said. “I’m sorry, Director Seo. I’m leaving. Drive safely.”

It was a perfectly polite response, but with a hint of cold and distant kind of polite. Dongsik turned to leave, and Inwoo could sense all the results of the effort he had made tonight, tolerating the team leader’s antics, slipping through his fingers.

“Stop,” he said, closing his eyes. “Where do you need to go?”


	12. Chapter 12

The place Dongsik needed to get to turned out to be a remote warehouse with rather rough-looking men loitering outside. Dongsik thanked Inwoo hastily and hurried out of the car. The men in front of the warehouse barely glanced at him when he walked past them through the open door. The sight may have been more surprising if Inwoo hadn’t already met Chilsung.

But this was not a place anyone respectable should come to in the middle of the night, let alone someone who had only moments before agreed to not do anything reckless. Then again, with the company Dongsik kept, who could tell what he even considered reckless? Inwoo got out of the car. Surely he was only being considerate if he checked what was going on. Wasn’t that what he was supposed to do for the purpose of them getting along?

The men at the door eyed him suspiciously but made no move to stop him. It wasn’t until he stepped inside and one of them bowed his head to him respectfully, that Inwoo realized many of these were Jihoon’s paid thugs, and the one bowing was one of Inwoo’s own informants.

Dongsik was standing a little further away with his back to the door. By his side was Chilsung, who tensed when he saw Inwoo but did nothing other than watch him like a hawk.

Three teen-aged boys were in front of Dongsik, two a bit to the side and looking less than sure of themselves, one leaning his back on the wall and glaring as if he was waiting to start a fight.

“Kids,” Dongsik said, “I gave you a chance.”

“What chance?” the one leaning against the wall said. In this tiny young gang, he seemed to be the leader. “We’re the ones who beat you up.”

“And did that get you anywhere? Think about your future. Do you want to end up like these guys?” Dongsik waved his hand towards Jihoon’s thugs and then turned around to face them, wincing. “I’m sorry.”

His apology was met with nothing but amusement. Dongsik was about to turn back to the teens when his gaze stopped at Inwoo.

“Why did you come in?”

“Was I not supposed to?” Inwoo asked.

Chilsung took a step closer to him.

“Should I throw him out?”

“No.” Dongsik stopped Chilsung with a hand on his arm. “I did bring him here. Leave him be.” He turned to face the leader of the teenagers again.

“Even if you don’t care about yourself,” Dongsik said, “what about your friends? Should you be dragging them into trouble again?”

One of the other boys stepped up.

“Don’t blame him. It was me.”

“Don’t say anything,” the leader hissed. He tried to move in front of the other boy but was pushed back.

“No, this is my problem.” The boy who had spoken dropped his gaze to the floor. “It’s because of my mom.”

“Okay,” Dongsik said. “Tell me everything.”

What followed was a typical sob-story to get out of trouble — how the boy’s mother had gotten injured at work, and her boss was not giving her paid sick leave, so they had resorted to stealing to earn some money so that she could at least afford better medical treatment. Granted, when Dongsik asked for details there were enough to give the story credibility. Even so, it was a mystery to Inwoo why Dongsik was listening to any of it.

“We can do something about that boss, right?” Chilsung said after the boy had finished talking.

“Yes,” Dongsik said. “But first you three need to decide how you’re going to make up for what you have done.”

The boys eyed him warily, then looked at one another.

“Think about it for a while.” Dongsik left them alone and walked up to Inwoo with Chilsung following a step behind. Inwoo watched him with his head tilted, trying to make sense of what was going on.

Dongsik stopped in front of Inwoo.

“What is it?”

“First of all,” Inwoo said, “they beat you up?”

Dongsik pushed his hands into the pockets of his coat and pulled his shoulders up, hiding his face deeper into his scarf. He sighed.

“Remember that time you were curious about how my face got bruised?”

“Right, when you… what was it? Fell on a brick wall?” Inwoo said, and Dongsik smiled a little. “How did they manage to beat you? Even if they look mean, they’re still just kids.”

“That’s just it,” Dongsik said. “I can’t hit kids, can I?”

“Hyungnim,” Chilsung said with a deep sigh, “you can’t hit anyone, really. You have a warrior’s heart, but you can’t fight.”

Dongsik turned slowly to look at him.

“Thank you, Chilsung. That’s really helpful.”

Chilsung beamed at him, oblivious to the sarcasm.

“Anyway,” Dongsik said, “they got off with just some community service back then. But if they keep breaking the law, there’s bound to be worse consequences.” He glanced back at the boys with a sad expression on his face.

“Isn’t that what society should do to criminals?” Inwoo asked. Or at least the ones who weren’t smart enough to not get caught.

“You saw how protective they are of each other,” Dongsik said, turning back to him. “They’re good kids. They’ve just gone down a wrong path.”

Inwoo couldn’t tell which part of these kids was supposedly good by any standard.

“You’re not really this stupid, right?” he said. “Even wild beasts are protective of their own.”

Chilsung made an abrupt move in his direction, but Dongsik’s hand was already on Chilsung’s chest, pushing him back.

“I need to talk to him alone for a moment,” Dongsik said, and gnashing his teeth, Chilsung stalked away to join the men by the door.

“You should be careful about how you talk to me here,” Dongsik said quietly.

“Are you threatening me now?” Inwoo asked. The whole scenario was starting to annoy him. That Chilsung, especially. Who did he think he was to treat Inwoo like this?

“No,” Dongsik said earnestly. “What I mean is, please don’t upset Chilsung. He can be hot-headed. You know what happened with your brother.”

“Speaking of which,” Inwoo said, “when I said you shouldn’t be reckless like that I didn’t mean just with Nam Sung Chul. Whatever it is you’re doing here, you need to stop.”

“Let’s make something clear,” Dongsik said, turning to face him squarely. “Outside of work, you don’t actually get to tell me what I can do.”

Inwoo scowled at him. As much as he liked that fierceness, it had a bad habit of appearing when it wasn’t useful.

“However,” Dongsik continued, turning his eyes down, “what happened with your brother was me making bad decisions, so it’s my responsibility to fix that. Which is why I’m agreeing to do what you say. But I feel responsible for those kids, too. I can’t ignore them now.”

“You really love making things difficult for me, don’t you?” Inwoo asked.

“I know I shouldn’t ask you this,” Dongsik said, biting his lip, “but it would take only a little bit of pressure from someone like you to get the boss of that boy’s mother back in line.”

“Ah, I understand now,” Inwoo said, getting more irritated. “You keep dragging me along because you realized how useful my name is to you.”

“No.” Looking into his eyes, Dongsik took half a step closer to him, then seemed to catch himself doing that and looked away. “And I didn’t drag you here, you came in on your own. You can decide if you want to help or not, but it would be a simple solution. Then I won’t have to do something more complicated.”

“By any chance,” Inwoo said, starting to connect the dots, “does this ‘something more complicated’ involve things like smoke bombs?” Although last July was firmly on the list of topics better forgotten, he did need some proper answers about what Dongsik really got up to in secret.

For a moment Dongsik looked lost, then his expression grew serious, and he shifted weight from one foot to another.

“Well…” he said, “not exactly that in this case, maybe, but…”

Dongsik turned to look at him, and Inwoo studied him quietly. The air around them grew heavier.

“Since you brought that up,” Dongsik said, “why were you so interested in that factory last summer?”

“Why were you?” Inwoo asked. Oddly enough it was almost pleasing that Dongsik wasn’t as oblivious as he had first assumed.

“Because you were. I wondered what could there possibly be that was worth keeping an eye on the way you were. But I don’t think what I found out about what was going on in there was what you cared about.”

“So you were stalking me?”

“I wasn’t… okay, technically, I guess I was.” Dongsik stared down at the floor. “It’s just that nothing was making sense anymore.”

It was an odd thing to say, but Inwoo had an uneasy feeling he had better not ask about it directly.

“I ran into you in front of your father’s restaurant back then,” he said.

“Yes.”

“You didn't even greet me. Even if I wasn’t yet your direct superior, it was really disrespectful to not acknowledge me at all.”

“I wasn’t sure why you were there, so I didn’t know what to do,” Dongsik said. “Why were you there?”

“To eat. It’s a restaurant, isn’t it?”

“It wasn’t even lunch hour yet.” Dongsik pulled his shoulders up again, looking away. “This is what I expected. No matter how much I tell you, you tell me nothing.”

Inwoo had only gotten a small fragment of his questions answered, but he could tell pushing Dongsik more wasn’t the right choice. Perhaps their past was too much of a mess to ever get sorted out. What did it even matter, now?

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll fix that kid’s sad story for you. In exchange, you will stop doing weird things like that for now.”

Dongsik took a deep breath, then turned to look at him with a hint of a smile that wasn’t the least bit genuinely happy.

“Thank you.”

Inwoo watched as he went back to talk to the teenagers. After a short, quiet discussion, Dongsik motioned for Chilsung to join him, said something to him, and then walked the kids out. Chilsung stayed behind. He walked lazily up to Inwoo and stopped a few steps away from him. Inwoo kept his gaze at the wall, determined to ignore him.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” Chilsung said after a moment’s silence.

“What?”

“The reason my hyungnim has been so down lately. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve only ever seen him drag his feet like that after he heard what the boys had to say about you.”

Inwoo turned to look at him sharply.

“What boys?”

“Look around.” Chilsung waved his hand towards the men at the door. “Your own paid double-agents, can’t you even tell?”

“You,” Inwoo said, glancing over his shoulder at the man who had bowed to him at the door. He walked up to Inwoo, stopping beside him with his head respectfully lowered.

“What have you told Dongsik about me?” Inwoo asked.

The man glanced at Chilsung, who gave Inwoo a crooked smile.

“Sorry, but your money isn’t worth more than our bond here.”

“Is that so?” Inwoo said. “What if the money stops? Which one were you? Was it sibling’s school fees, or some medical fees, or what?” He didn’t care enough to remember the details, but it had to be something like that. The only thing he could trust about people like this was desperation.

Chilsung’s jaw clenched.

“You’re really—”

“What?” Inwoo asked. “Is it unreasonable to expect people to do the job they’re paid for?”

“Fine.” Chilsung nodded his head at the man. “Tell him. It’s nothing much, anyway.”

“We told him about the fight between you and your brother. And that you would eventually win because you’re like a patient snake that will lie in wait until it’s time to strike to kill.”

“When did you tell him that?” Inwoo asked.

“Sometime last summer, I think.”

Inwoo nodded. It really was nothing much. It was quite accurate, and from a thug like this, it was essentially a compliment. But it made sense that to Dongsik, who had had an entirely different kind of illusion for years, it had been a revelation that had turned everything upside down. What would Dongsik do in that situation? Anything to find out if it was true or not?

Inwoo realized Chilsung was watching him expectantly. He needed to decide what to do about his loose-tongued informant. While what the man had told Dongsik was hardly a problem in itself, Inwoo had no use for people who were loyal to someone else before him. But it was likely anything he said now would reach Dongsik’s ears, too.

“It’s fine,” he said. “There doesn’t need to be any change in our arrangement.” With Jihoon out of the country, this was something he could sort out properly later.

The man bowed gratefully and walked back to his spot by the door. Chilsung studied Inwoo with his brows furrowed.

“What is it now?” Inwoo asked.

“I’m trying to figure out if you’re a complete bastard or not.” Chilsung shrugged. “I guess there must be some reason I’m not allowed to beat you up.”

Inwoo smiled. Since Dongsik valued this guy, it was fortunate he didn’t try.

“Why do you treat Dongsik as your superior?” Inwoo asked. “You said he can’t even fight.”

“He showed me a better way to live,” Chilsung said solemnly. 

“How?” Inwoo suspected the story he was about to hear would be ridiculous, but Dongsik had been evading this question too many times. Chilsung, on the other hand, looked quite eager to share the story.

“It was quite a while back. I got into a fight with this one guy, and it got so bad I thought only one of us was going to walk out of it alive. And then hyungnim showed up and talked us down.” Chilsung got a faraway look in his eyes. “You should have seen him. He was so terrified of us he was shaking like a leaf, but he still wouldn’t back down. That’s when I knew he was the one I should follow.”

“I see,” Inwoo said. The last part definitely was ridiculous. “That’s an odd situation for him to meddle with.”

“I thought so, too.” Chilsung nodded gravely. “But he told me that long ago some really nice stranger helped him, so he had decided to do the same when he saw people in trouble.”

“Why would…” Inwoo paused. Something about this story was clicking with what Dongsik had told him before.

“He says he was lucky to have met that person,” Chilsung said cheerfully. “He was lucky to meet me, too. We’ve done a lot of good things and helped a lot of people together.”

“What are you telling him?” Dongsik had appeared behind them.

They both turned around. Chilsung gave Inwoo a nervous glance.

“Did I say something he shouldn’t know?”

“Never mind,” Dongsik said, closing his eyes. “Director Seo, isn’t it about time for you to leave?”

Inwoo didn’t resist when Dongsik ushered him to the door. He needed time to digest what he had learned, anyway.

“So you met someone who inspired you to help people?” Inwoo asked when they were outside.

Dongsik merely sighed.

“Was it me?” Inwoo tried not to laugh but was only barely succeeding. All the way to his car he tried to keep his amusement in check, while Dongsik was growing increasingly more disgruntled.

“Yes, okay, I was completely wrong.” Dongsik glared at him as they stopped beside Inwoo’s car. “Is it that funny?”

“That’s not it,” Inwoo said. Perhaps Dongsik wouldn’t appreciate the hilarity of it all, but if Inwoo had the chain of events correct, then it was because Dongsik had met him in the past that he had been getting in his way. It was like Inwoo had accidentally created his own nemesis. “Isn’t it funny how you and I keep running into each other like that?”

“I guess,” Dongsik said, but while the anger in his voice faded, it wasn’t amusement that was replacing it, but a sense of sadness. Inwoo realized that what was funny to him was probably not so to Dongsik. Feelings were messy, whether it was admiration or lust or something else.

“You must have been really disappointed in the real Seo Inwoo,” he said.

Dongsik was quiet for a moment, staring off into the distance.

“At first I got angry about all your pretending,” he said. “But you’re just you. It’s not like you could actually turn into someone else even if you tried. Right now, rather than disappointed, I just wish I could understand you.”

Inwoo looked away. For some reason, this sounded more dangerous than if Dongsik had tried to blackmail him with what he knew.

“You can get home with your gangster neighbor, right?” he said to break the silence.

“Yes, right. Since he lives in the same building, that makes sense.”

Dongsik stating the very obvious caused Inwoo to turn his eyes back to him. Dongsik looked down on the ground, fiddling with the fringes of his scarf.

“What’s this reaction?” Inwoo asked. “Did you want to come to my place after all?”

Dongsik raised his eyes, and the way they narrowed told Inwoo he was about to snap at him again.

“Fine, fine, we’re getting along like co-workers,” Inwoo interrupted him before he could say anything. “Obviously it should be like a boss and an employee, but whatever you say.”

He stepped closer to adjust Dongsik’s scarf more snuggly around his neck, fully aware that whether it was as a boss or as a co-worker, he was probably crossing the line. But now he knew for sure that this whole ‘getting along’ would never work. How long would they be able to pretend otherwise?

He stopped with his thumb resting against Dongsik’s cheek for a moment. Dongsik stood still, barely breathing, and Inwoo wondered if he would still get angry if he asked him to come with him for the third time.

“I’m leaving,” Inwoo said, pulling his hand away and taking a step back. “Keep out of trouble.”


	13. Chapter 13

In the following week, it almost didn’t matter whether they could keep pretending or not. There were few opportunities to talk at work without other people getting in the way, and Inwoo knew he couldn’t tell Dongsik to come into his office alone too often without that soon reaching his father’s ears.

In theory, the distance should have been a good thing, as the uneasy peace between the two of them couldn’t be broken that way. But Inwoo couldn’t shake the feeling the clock was ticking regardless, and the time of peace was being wasted without him getting anything out of it.

Which was why, one day, when he saw Jaeho head out to lunch with Team Leader Gong, Inwoo went out of his way to see where they had left Dongsik. He found him alone in the break room, talking on the phone.

“At seven? Okay, I’ll see you then.”

“You’re making plans early,” Inwoo said, walking into the room after Dongsik had ended his call. There was no sign of the other employees. Wherever they were, hopefully they would stay there for a while.

Dongsik gave Inwoo an uncertain glance.

“I’m sorry, Director Seo, is there—”

“Why is it ‘Director Seo’ again?” Inwoo asked irritably.

Dongsik paused, looking even more uncertain.

“What else am I supposed to call you?”

Inwoo hadn’t actually thought about that. But lately, there had been such an obvious sense of coldness in Dongsik addressing him by his job title that it had started to grate on his ears. Of course, despite their agreement to get along, there wasn’t really any reason for Dongsik to address him as anything other than as his boss.

“There’s no work I need to stay overtime for, is there?” Dongsik asked eventually when Inwoo wasn’t saying anything.

“No.”

“Then why are you asking about my plans after work?”

“To check that you still remember you promised not to do anything reckless,” Inwoo said. Having a normal conversation with Dongsik was surprisingly difficult. He was instantly on guard, and Inwoo couldn’t use his usual methods to put him at ease.

“I’m just meeting Bokyung at the coffee shop to look over some case files,” Dongsik said.

“Is that really all?”

“Do you want to come along and check?”

“Unlike you, I do have to stay and work.” Inwoo leaned his back on the wall, feeling suddenly strangely exhausted. There should have been no reason for that. The international deal he needed to discuss over the phone later that night would make him look even more like the perfect successor for the company. It wasn’t something to get tired over, no matter what kind of offers he had to decline because of it. Some pointless meeting in a coffee shop shouldn’t be any competition. Not to mention, the purpose of Dongsik’s words had probably been to tell Inwoo he was meddling too much, instead of actually asking him to come along.

Dongsik set his phone down on the table, and a little hesitantly walked over to Inwoo’s side. Facing Inwoo, he leaned his shoulder against the wall next to him.

“Should I stay and help you with that overseas deal? I can meet with Bokyung some other day.”

“When did you get so ambitious about your career?” Inwoo asked.

“Oh, I…” Dongsik cleared his throat. “I should start thinking about the future, right?”

His hesitation gave Inwoo a pause. Perhaps Dongsik’s motivation for offering to stay had nothing to do with work.

“You’re thinking about your future?” Inwoo said, nodding. “What can you tell me about the deal in question? You must have done your research already if you’re serious about helping.”

“Uh, well...” Dongsik scratched his ear, scanning the walls of the break room with his eyes as if they could give him some suitable answers. Inwoo watched him with amusement for a moment, but in the interest of not breaking the peace, he pushed aside the urge to tease him more.

“Just go look at those case files like you planned,” he said. “Find some fun crime to cheer yourself up.”

Dongsik sighed, closing his eyes.

“Can you not put that in such a weird way?”

“Isn’t it accurate?” Inwoo laughed, and Dongsik couldn’t suppress the smile appearing on his lips.

Just as Inwoo was thinking he’d like to keep Dongsik relaxed and smiling like this for a while, they were startled by footsteps in the hallway, and Dongsik moved back over to the table. A few seconds later, Jaeho walked in without seeing Inwoo by the wall. Inwoo gave his back an icy glare. Why was he returning so soon? This guy was becoming a nuisance.

“Well, you were right, that restaurant was completely full,” Jaeho said. Following Dongsik’s gaze, he noticed Inwoo and spun around to face him. “I’m sorry, Director Seo. What brings you here? Should I get you some coffee?”

“No,” Inwoo said, smiling pleasantly. “I was just leaving.”

Trying to steal more of Dongsik’s time while Jaeho was around would be a wasted effort, so Inwoo walked out. At least they’d had a short moment that didn’t end in a fight. That should be considered a success.

“You know,” Dongsik said to Jaeho back in the room, and Inwoo slowed down to hear the rest, “if that place was full you could have gone to eat somewhere else.”

“I have sandwiches in the fridge,” Jaeho replied. “Why do you sound so annoyed?”

***

Inwoo ran into Dongsik again by the elevator when the employees were leaving for the day. Or rather, Dongsik walked into him, as he was frowning at the screen of his phone so intently he once again didn’t watch where he was going.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Dongsik looked up and took a step back.

“What has you so distracted?” Inwoo asked.

“Nam Sung Chul,” Dongsik said. “He wants to meet me to talk about the murder suspect.”

Inwoo frowned.

“Why you?”

Dongsik tilted his head.

“Because I’m friendly and trustworthy? I’ve met him for coffee before.”

“Foolishly trusting, you mean.” Inwoo snatched the phone from Dongsik’s hands. “Why would you meet with him?”

Dongsik swallowed his response as Jaeho and Team Leader Gong walked along the hallway toward them. Inwoo took advantage of the opportunity and slipped Dongsik’s phone into his own pocket, earning a restrained glare from Dongsik. After exchanging greetings with the others, Inwoo turned to walk back to his office.

“Dongsik, aren’t you getting off work?” Jaeho asked behind him.

“Uh, I… forgot something on my desk. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Inwoo left the door of his office open as he walked in. A more pressing question than why Dongsik would meet with Nam Sung Chul was why Nam Sung Chul would meet with Dongsik. Judging by the disdain Inwoo had seen him direct towards his dead wife, if he hadn’t killed her, he would have no interest in aiding in the investigation. No, he would take pleasure in seeing the crime remain unsolved. And if he had killed her…

He set Dongsik’s phone down on his desk and sat down in his chair with his arms crossed, waiting while Dongsik followed him in and closed the door behind him.

“Can I get my phone back, please?” Dongsik asked, walking over to the side of the desk.

“No. Why is ‘don’t do anything reckless’ so hard for you to follow?”

“I just met him for coffee. Why are you taking that so seriously?”

“You’re not taking it seriously enough,” Inwoo said. “Did you even stop to think what kind of person you’re dealing with?”

“I believe what you said about him,” Dongsik said, “but those things don’t necessarily make him dangerous.”

“Not dangerous? Fine, it’s possible he didn’t kill his wife. But if he did, he planned it all meticulously to make it look like a suicide, and in addition to that had a Plan B to frame someone else for it so that the police now have a different suspect. What do you think he would do to someone like you who keeps persistently buzzing around asking too many questions?”

Dongsik stared at him with his mouth half-open for a moment.

“Why have you thought about this so much?” he asked. “It didn’t seem you were even interested before.”

“What’s there even to think about? Isn’t it obvious?”

Dongsik frowned, and it occurred to Inwoo that perhaps it wasn’t quite that obvious to other people.

“Haven’t you learned anything from dealing with me?” Inwoo asked. “What happens when you trust people too easily?”

Dongsik said nothing to that, only stared down at the floor. Inwoo ignored the desire to do something about the wounded expression in his eyes. Right now he only needed Dongsik to understand he should be more cautious.

The phone on the desk rang, and Dongsik reached out to take it. Inwoo caught his arm by the wrist.

“That’s Bokyung calling,” Dongsik said. “You know, a police officer? Should I not answer?”

“Oh, now she’s a police officer instead of a family friend? At least you’ve learned to be a bit manipulative.” Inwoo pushed Dongsik’s arm away and put the phone on speaker mode.

“Hey, Bokyung,” Dongsik said, sighing deeply, “please be careful of what you say. My phone is being held hostage.”

“What?”

“The phone is not allowed to leave my office until I’m sure it’s not running into trouble,” Inwoo said.

Bokyung laughed.

“Oh, I see. What are you up to now, Dongsik?”

“It’s nothing,” Dongsik said hastily, responding with a soft shake of his head to Inwoo scowling at him. “Why are you calling?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can meet you today,” Bokyung said. “It seems I’ll be stuck at work all night.”

“Well, that can’t be helped. Nothing serious has happened, right?”

“I shouldn’t tell you this, but…” Bokyung lowered her voice. “That suspect has just vanished. We checked his home, but while we found some evidence, it looks like he hasn’t even packed anything if he ran.”

Dongsik’s expression grew serious.

“What evidence?”

“A syringe and a vial of the drug we found in the victim’s blood.” Her voice turned into a whisper. “I’m sorry, I need to go.”

After the call ended, Dongsik turned to look out of the window, lost in thought.

“Why can’t she know Nam Sung Chul asked you to meet him?” Inwoo asked.

Dongsik glanced at him, looking confused as if he had already forgotten their previous argument.

“Oh.” He seemed to take a moment to switch the gears of his thoughts. “Because I can’t tell her to suspect him without giving her a reason, and I can’t tell her the reason is that the calm and sensible Director Seo simply _knows_ because he happens to be a bit different from what she thinks. I’ll tell her when I have something else as proof.”

Inwoo leaned back in his chair. Annoyingly enough, he couldn’t exactly tell Dongsik off for caring so much about keeping his secret.

“About that evidence they found, though…” Dongsik chewed on his lower lip.

“Pretty careless to leave it at home for the police to find,” Inwoo said. “Hasn’t it already been over two weeks?”

“Right. And nothing about this murder has been careless, so far.” With brows furrowed, Dongsik reached for his phone and was startled as Inwoo grabbed his wrist again.

“I need my phone to check some things,” Dongsik said. 

Inwoo held on. Now he couldn’t even believe that if Dongsik left, he would be heading to meet Shim Bokyung, who could _maybe_ be trusted to keep him out of trouble.

Dongsik took a deep breath.

“Okay, how about this? Since my plans are canceled anyway, I’ll just sit over there.” He nodded towards the sofa. “But I need my phone.”

“Fine.” Inwoo let slowly go. “If you try to leave, I will tell the security to catch you.”

Shaking his head, Dongsik made himself comfortable on the sofa. Assured that Dongsik wasn’t planning on sneaking out, Inwoo turned his attention to the files for the overseas deal.

After a while, Dongsik walked back to Inwoo’s desk.

“If you’re not using your tablet, can I borrow it?” he asked.

Inwoo handed the tablet over without looking up, and Dongsik walked back to the sofa, typing something on his phone.

“Who are you texting?” Inwoo asked.

“Chilsung. Since I’m stuck here, I need him to go to a few places.”

Inwoo nodded. That was better than Dongsik running around himself.

Time passed quietly like that, with Inwoo working at his desk and Dongsik on the sofa. Eventually Inwoo came to the conclusion that there was nothing more he could do to prepare himself for the upcoming phone negotiations. Resting his chin on his palm, he watched Dongsik, who was completely focused on whatever it was he was doing.

There was a bit of the sharp-edged Dongsik in the way he was concentrating, and Inwoo liked seeing that. But it wasn’t just that it was a pleasant sight. This was kind of strange. Dongsik wasn’t even doing anything to entertain Inwoo, and yet him being there, close by, was somehow… nice.

Dongsik looked up and noticed Inwoo was watching him.

“What is it?” he asked.

Inwoo looked away. _Nice?_ Ridiculous was what it was. What had gotten into him?

“I’m wondering how far you would be in your career if you put this much effort into your actual job,” he said.

“I do my job as well as I can,” Dongsik said. “I think I just don’t have the knack for the stock market.” He set the tablet down on the coffee table and stretched his arms.

“Aren’t you hungry?” he asked. “Should I go buy us something to eat?”

“Is this an excuse to run away?” Inwoo asked.

Dongsik walked over to the desk and set his phone down in front of Inwoo.

“Should I leave something else for you to believe I’ll come back? My wallet?” He took it out of his pocket but then paused. “No, wait, I have to pay for the food, don’t I?”

Inwoo took the wallet from his hands and handed him his credit card. Rolling his eyes, Dongsik took the card.

“I’m going to buy something really expensive, you know.”

“You’d better,” Inwoo said. “Surely you’re not thinking of feeding me anything cheap?”

“Fine.” Dongsik nodded. “What do you want to eat?”

“You decide. Didn’t you learn what I eat from your stalking?”

“I didn’t…” Dongsik sighed and turned his back to Inwoo. “I know. What you need is something hot enough to burn your tongue.”

Inwoo drummed his fingers on his desk, watching Dongsik’s back as he walked to the door.

“Are you still talking about food?” he asked, and Dongsik stopped with his hand on the door. He stood still for a moment, then lowered his head and walked out. Inwoo grinned as the door closed behind him. That was what he got for getting sassy with Inwoo.

With Dongsik gone, Inwoo felt restless. Not that he didn’t trust him to come back — as odd as it was, Dongsik was highly unlikely to run off with his credit card. But it was as if in such a short time Inwoo had already gotten so used to Dongsik taking up space in his office that not having him there made the room feel empty.

He left his own phone on the desk, took off his jacket, and threw it over the back of his chair. He walked over to the sofa, placing Dongsik’s phone and wallet on the coffee table. For a moment he sat on the sofa, then he dimmed the too bright ceiling lights, and loosening his tie a few notches lay down on his back.

The screen of Dongsik’s phone lit up and Inwoo couldn’t resist the temptation to check what for. But it was only a message from Dongsik’s sister, and Inwoo decided to be courteous enough to not read it. She probably had nothing interesting to say, anyway. He let the screen grow dark again, then turned the phone around in his hand.

The upper left corner of the screen had a crack on it. Judging by how smooth the edges of the crack were, it had been like that for a while. Had Dongsik broken it out of clumsiness, or while he was doing something dangerous?

“Nam Sung Chul,” Inwoo said out loud. He ran his finger through his hair, flipping Dongsik’s phone around in his other hand. Maybe from the start, he should have told Dongsik to not get involved. Did he now have to add another person, besides his family, to the list of people to keep Dongsik safe from? His family at least was likely to turn to murder only as the last resort, not the first.

When Dongsik finally returned, Inwoo was resting with his eyes closed, Dongsik’s phone on his chest.

“Your phone’s screen is cracked.” Inwoo opened his eyes and looked up to Dongsik. “Why don’t you get a new phone? It’s not even an expensive model.”

Dongsik stood hesitantly next to the sofa with two bags of food in his hands.

“It’s just a bit broken. It works fine.”

Inwoo sat up and slipped the phone back on the table.

“That must be your motto: it’s fine, it’s just a bit broken.”

“I think I like that, actually,” Dongsik said. “It kind of applies to people, too.”

Inwoo watched Dongsik set the bags down on the table, the credit card in front of him, and then sit down on the other edge of the sofa. Curiously enough, he was definitely avoiding looking at Inwoo. How had all the sass turned to timidness along the way? Inwoo sighed, leaning back on the sofa.

“Haven’t you ever thought of that if you keep picking up and coddling weird and shady people like that Chilsung or those kids last time, one day one of them is bound to turn out to be an actual monster?”

Dongsik stopped to stare at the chopsticks in his hands for a moment.

“I think it’s not bad to believe the best of people.”

“That’s how you end up getting yourself killed.”

“It could also lead to something great,” Dongsik said, setting the chopstick down in front of Inwoo. “Don’t worry. I know how to be cautious too.”

“Why would I worry about you?” Inwoo said, looking away.

“Right. Why do you worry about me?”

For a while, they did nothing but eat until Inwoo couldn’t deal with the silence anymore.

“If you think you don’t have the knack for this job, is there something else you want to do?” he asked. “Do you really want to be a detective?”

“Do you think I’d ever pass the physical test for the police academy?” Dongsik asked.

“No.”

“No.” Dongsik nodded. “I haven’t really thought about it. Getting this job was difficult enough. What about you? Do you like what do you, or is it just that you want to take over the company?”

“Aren’t those the same thing? I like what I do because it gets me the company.”

“Don’t you think you might be happier if you gave that up?”

“How would it be better to give it up? What else is happiness than getting what I want?” Inwoo gave Dongsik a sideways glance. “Is someone paying you to convince me to give up?” He didn’t really think that, and Dongsik seemed to know as much, as he only smiled softly.

“I just worry about you sometimes.”

Inwoo didn’t know what to say to that, but fortunately, after Dongsik started talking, he liked to keep going. The rest of the meal passed with Dongsik asking all kinds of pointless questions Inwoo gave short answers to. It was the sort of thing that would have normally been annoying, but this time Inwoo didn’t mind.

He set the chopsticks aside and rested his head against the backrest of the sofa, turning to look at Dongsik. Maybe it was best if he didn’t admit it to Dongsik, but what use was there in arguing with himself? ‘Nice’ was really what this was, or maybe even more than that. He liked having Dongsik around like this. How could he make it so this could last as long as possible?

Unfortunately… that probably meant _some_ things were out of the question. He traced the line of Dongsik’s neck with his eyes. After all, he’d had a good reason for putting an end to it the last time. What was it again?

Dongsik glanced at him, and whatever he was in the middle of saying got caught in his throat. For a moment he looked into Inwoo’s eyes with his lips slightly parted, and that wasn’t helping Inwoo get his thoughts back on safe tracks.

“So, anyway,” Dongsik said, turning away, but it seemed he, too, had lost his train of thought.

Inwoo got up from the sofa.

“Can you get me a coffee?”

“Yes.” Dongsik was up on his feet before finishing the word, and Inwoo tried not to laugh when he stumbled on the edge of the sofa on the way out.

Inwoo walked back to his desk. How had he not realized that with the dim lights and everything he had set the mood up to be far too cozy? He sat down in his chair, pushing aside the distracting thoughts. What was he even thinking? It shouldn’t have been hard to remember a few simple rules. Not in the office. Not with someone who worked for him. And definitely not Dongsik. The peace between them was on shaky ground, to begin with. Inwoo couldn’t play him like that again. That would be the end of everything.

He glanced up at the lights but decided to leave them as they were. Changing them now would be too obvious. It was better to act like nothing had happened.

Dongsik returned with the coffee, and Inwoo pretended to be reading the files he had no reason to be reading anymore. Dongsik went back to clean up the table, and Inwoo took the coffee, left the files alone, and turned his chair to face the window. He just needed to keep his head cool from now on. After finishing the negotiations over the phone, he should give Dongsik a ride home. No, before that he should get Dongsik to tell him exactly what he was investigating. But before that, he should give him some time to forget the moment they’d had just now.

Inwoo finished his coffee, watching the lights of the city outside his window. After a while, he heard Dongsik sigh deeply. Inwoo turned his chair around. 

“What is it?” he asked.

“Nam Sung Chul lied about his fishing trip.” Dongsik lowered his head, burying both of his hands into his hair. “Also, apparently no one has seen Bokyung’s suspect since the day before he became the suspect. Before that, he was acting normally.”

“You found out all that from here?”

“Yes,” Dongsik said, without raising his head.

“Your investigative network must be quite impressive.”

“Didn’t you hear Chilsung last time? We’ve helped a lot of people.”

Dongsik raised his head, his hair now even more of a mess than usual. He got up from the sofa and walked to the window.

“But if it’s all Nam Sung Chul’s plan, and he planted the evidence in the suspect’s home, wouldn’t he also think it’s too convenient?” he said. “Is it because he had to do it in a rush, or does he think the police won’t think about it that much? Or…”

Dongsik chewed on his lip, then his expression turned determined.

“Or he has something else that makes this bit of evidence only the beginning.” He turned around, leaning on the windowsill.

“Shouldn’t you report this to Shim Bokyung now?” Inwoo said.

Dongsik shook his head.

“Not yet.” He scowled. “Nam Sung Chul has been two steps ahead of everyone so far. First, I have to get ahead of him. But what is he up to that he wants to involve me?” Dongsik stared darkly down at the floor.

“It’s been a while since I last saw this Dongsik,” Inwoo said.

Dongsik looked up.

“What do you mean?”

“What should I call it? A hunter? The one who put Jihoon in his place.”

Dongsik fierceness seemed to fade as he lowered his eyes again. Perhaps he still foolishly thought what had happened with Jihoon had been a mistake.

“I just want Nam Sung Chul to pay for his crime,” he said.

“No.” Inwoo got up from his chair and walked to his side. “If it was just that, you’d be calling your police friend already. This is personal now. Who does he think he is to mess with you? So, you want to trap him in your own way. By your own rules. Just like you did with Jihoon.”

“Well…” Dongsik pulled his shoulders up. “Is that so bad, if it’s for a good reason?”

“Who said it’s bad?” Inwoo smiled. “I like it.” To put it mildly. It was irresistible.

So irresistible, that Inwoo hadn’t realized how close he had moved until Dongsik raised his gaze again, and the dark expression in his eyes made the pull Inwoo felt all the stronger. Aware of the danger, Inwoo tried to move away, but Dongsik caught hold of his tie and pulled him back. Before Inwoo had time to fully register how outrageous that was, Dongsik was already kissing him.

His head full of white noise, Inwoo didn’t know what to focus on — that Dongsik had the audacity to do this in the office, or that the peace had now definitely ended, or that the kiss was really, _really_ hot.

Then Inwoo’s phone was ringing on his desk, and he wanted to smash it on the wall. Dongsik pulled back an inch. He pressed his forehead against Inwoo’s, sliding his fingers slowly down his tie.

“You…” Inwoo had no idea how to continue the sentence.

“I’m sorry,” Dongsik said quietly. “I have to go.”

Then he was gone, and Inwoo made it to the phone, cursing.

It wasn’t until Inwoo had managed to navigate through the long phone call in a foreign language that he realized Dongsik had run off without their argument actually resolved, and Dongsik perhaps even more determined to do exactly what Inwoo didn’t want him to do. Feeling uneasy, he tried to call him. Of course, Dongsik didn’t answer. Inwoo gripped the edge of his desk so tightly his fingers turned white. Why did he have a phone if he never answered his calls?

Inwoo picked up his coat. At least despite Dongsik’s valiant efforts at distracting him, he had completed the negotiation for the deal beautifully, and now all he had to do was finish the report. That could wait until morning. Or however long it took to find Dongsik and tie him up until he learned to listen.

He had made it to his car when he heard the message notification of his phone. His hope that it was from Dongsik was crushed the moment he held the phone in his hand. He stared at the screen, a cold sensation spreading all over him.

_I want to repay your kindness at the funeral. -Nam Sung Chul_

Slowly, Inwoo pocketed his phone and pulled open the car door.

Things were certainly about to get interesting.

But he suspected he wasn’t going to like this twist.


	14. Chapter 14

The first vague message from Nam Sung Chul was followed by another with nothing in it but an address for a warehouse in a remote industrial area. Dongsik was still not answering his phone, and that was all the incentive Inwoo needed to follow the trail of the messages, even though it was clear Nam Sung Chul was playing some kind of game and not even pretending otherwise.

Inwoo was still a few minutes’ drive away from his destination when he saw a group of people standing at the side of the road, Chilsung among them. Inwoo pulled over and opened his window. Chilsung walked closer with a puzzled look on his face.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“Probably the same reason as you are. Where’s Dongsik?”

Chilsung eyed him suspiciously.

“How do you even know about what we’re doing here?”

“Dongsik was with me the whole evening before meeting with you,” Inwoo said.

“He didn’t tell me anything about that.” Chilsung scowled. “I know he has to put up with you all day, so why would he still do it after work? You always get him all upset.”

Inwoo tightened his grip on the steering wheel. Why did he have to waste his time on pointless arguing?

“Should I tell you what we had for dinner, so you can ask him if it’s true?” Inwoo asked. “Oh, right, his sister sent a message while he was out getting food. You can ask him about that, too.”

Chilsung eyed him grudgingly but shrugged.

“He’s not here right now. Since this area is so big, we split up.” He shifted weight from one foot to another. “He should be back already, though it’s only been ten minutes past the time we agreed. He’s also not answering his phone, but we always keep our phones in silent mode for this kind of stuff, so this is nothing yet.” He didn’t sound very convinced of his own words.

Inwoo turned to look at the rows of buildings ahead. So, Dongsik was out there somewhere and couldn’t be reached. Unlike Inwoo, who had received a precise address, he had only known to search this general area. But stopping to wonder why that was wouldn’t get Inwoo any closer to finding him before it was too late.

“Is he alone?” Inwoo asked.

“Of course not. We went in pairs. But if they’re not back soon, I’m calling Officer Shim. I think this is already too big for us.”

“Right.” Inwoo started the car. “I’ll look over there. You don’t want my company, anyway.”

Inwoo parked his car before coming in view of the correct warehouse and continued on foot. Nam Sung Chul would be somewhere he could see the road. Inwoo wasn’t about to make things easy for him. Taking advantage of the cover of the other nearby buildings, he circled around to the back of the warehouse and made his way toward the front along the side of the building.

The place was as quiet and dark as it should be in the middle of the night. Only something moved, slowly and clumsily, among a stack of crates by the wall. Inwoo walked cautiously toward the movement. It was a man, struggling to get up from the ground. But with a cleanly shaven head, not the poodle hair Inwoo hoped to find. Inwoo moved closer, took the man by the collar, and pulled him up enough to see his face. He had probably seen this guy among Chilsung’s gang before. They all looked about the same.

“Were you with Dongsik?”

The man blinked slowly, but couldn't keep his eyes open. He didn’t seem to have any injuries. The sluggishness of his movements suggested he’d been drugged. Inwoo let go of his collar and he slumped back down on top of a crate.

“You couldn’t be more useless.”

A few steps ahead, a glint of light on the ground caught Inwoo’s attention. He left the drugged man alone and went to take a closer look. It was a phone, lying face down on the gravel. Inwoo picked it up and turned it over. There was the familiar crack on the upper left corner of the screen.

Inwoo brushed his thumb softly over the crack. Was the phone evidence now? But if that was the case, Nam Sung Chul needed something worse than the police to happen to him. He slipped the phone into his pocket.

He entered the warehouse through the side door and stopped for a moment to let his eyes get accustomed to the dark. There were no windows at the front of the main hall. Across from where Inwoo was standing was the staff room, but if it had a window, it would be on the opposite side, not toward the road. Above the staff room, at the end of a short staircase, was a door that probably led to some kind of office. Just the place to keep an eye on the road and the front yard.

The staircase was a rusty metal thing that didn’t look particularly sturdy. Climbing it would make a lot of noise, so there was no other option than to do it very slowly.

Inching upward the flimsy stairs, Inwoo could hear voices. At least two people. He couldn’t make out the words, but it wasn’t a friendly conversation.

Three steps from the top, he was certain one of the voices was Dongsik’s.

Inwoo stopped, gripping the railing tightly. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath. But now that he had stopped to breathe, he noticed the smell of gasoline. Where was it? Coating the stairs, probably. A trap had been set up here.

The door at the top was ajar. Inwoo continued up the remaining stairs and pushed the door slowly open. There were no lights on in the office room, the only illumination was a blue LED clock on top of a filing cabinet in the corner next to the door, and the soft light the window blinds let through from the lamps out on the yard.

Nam Sung Chul was watching the yard through a gap in the blinds. When he saw the door move in the reflection on the window he was startled only for a fragment of a second before he turned around, grinning.

“Look at you, showing up like a ghost.”

“Why are you here?” Dongsik stood up from the desk he had been sitting on. Nam Sung Chul clicked his tongue and Dongsik sat back down.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Inwoo said, focused on gauging the condition Dongsik was in. “Why am I here?” There was a cut on Dongsik’s cheek, but otherwise he seemed fine. And now that Inwoo had found him, he would stay that way. But a cut like that didn’t suit a face like Dongsik’s. Someone should pay for that.

Satisfied that Dongsik wasn’t in immediate danger, Inwoo looked around the room. Nam Sung Chul was holding a lighter in his hand. In the corner behind him was a third person, unconscious and hands bound. The missing suspect, presumably. Inwoo brushed a finger over the door frame behind his back. There was a nice flammable coating there, and probably elsewhere in the room, as well. That explained why Dongsik was staying so obediently on his spot despite the fact that had he tried to run, from his position he’d make it to the door first.

If a fire broke out, the small office would get filled with smoke fast, and if one was lucky enough to avoid the flames and get through the door, by then the gasoline-coated staircase would be a burning staircase. The safer option would be to jump, likely getting injured hitting the concrete floor below and left to crawl to the exit while the rest of the warehouse caught fire. It was quite the deathtrap. Too bad Inwoo wasn’t in the mood to appreciate it.

But Nam Sung Chul surely wasn’t planning on getting himself trapped in a fire. Something about the set-up had not gone according to his plans.

“At the funeral I thought _maybe_ … but now I’m sure.” Nam Sung Chul turned to look at Dongsik, nodding his head toward Inwoo. “Do you see that? Isn’t that terrifying? It gives even me a chill.” He chuckled.

Dongsik frowned, giving Inwoo a puzzled look.

“What am I supposed to be seeing?”

“He’s already figured out what he walked into,” Nam Sung Chul said, grinning as he flipped the lighter in his hand, “but he’s not even a little bit afraid.”

“Oh.” Inwoo leaned on the door frame, crossing his arms. “I knew I forgot something.”

“So, he’s not scared. What of it?” Dongsik asked.

“Let’s not get impatient.” Nam Sung Chul leaned on the windowsill, casual and relaxed, as if he was just chatting with some friends. “Everyone should understand what’s going on. That man in the corner killed my wife. When I figured that out, he lured me here to kill me, too. Fortunately for me, I brought the kind and brave Yook Dongsik with me. But unfortunately for Yook Dongsik, he died saving me. You get to die a hero. I’d say to thank me later, but… you can’t.” He laughed.

Dongsik glared at him, not looking particularly grateful.

“But I guess you’re not quite as stupid as you look,” Nam Sung Chul went on. “You showed up skulking around here tonight, instead of obediently walking into my trap. Well, it won’t make a difference. You’re here now, so you’ll die.”

“You still need me to find my phone,” Dongsik said. “When the police get the evidence on it, that will be the end, anyway. If you stop now, you may get a lighter sentence.”

“I’m starting to wonder if you hid the phone so well I won’t find it, would anyone else find it either?”

“People who know me probably know where to look,” Dongsik said, and Inwoo had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing. Because the phone had been lying face down on the ground in a very Dongsik-like fashion?

Apparently Dongsik had been stalling the situation by bluffing. Inwoo was tempted to just stand back and watch how far he could take the ruse. But Chilsung had probably called in the cavalry by now, and when the police showed up to make noise, the chances were they would all burn. This needed to end quickly. There wasn’t much to it but to take Nam Sung Chul down, but getting close enough wouldn’t be so simple. Inwoo sighed quietly. Why was saving a person such a hassle?

“Your evidence might not really matter,” Nam Sung Chul said. “Do you know how corrupt the police in this country are? They don’t care about the truth, they just want to wrap up cases neatly to make themselves look good. I’m going to give them the neat case, then all I need is someone with a bit of leverage to do some sweet-talking to take away any silly ideas of investigating more.” He turned to look at Inwoo.

“So that’s why you wanted me here,” Inwoo said. “You don’t think I’d do that out of kindness, do you? I doubt you can afford me.”

“You must be a bit interested, since you showed up. I looked into you. I have a gist of what’s going on in your company. You probably need to get rid of a lot of people. Your enemies… or your family?” Nam Sung Chul grinned. “I can help with that. I’m not even greedy. It’s enough if the police can’t touch me.”

“Are you serious?” Dongsik said. “How can you even—”

“You think he minds this kind of suggestion?” Nam Sung Chul sneered. “Right, you asked about that. He’s not scared, what of it? He probably has me figured out the same way I have him figured out. You see, we understand each other. He and I, we’re the same. A step higher on the food chain than everyone else. Though I guess you think we’re the sort of people who should be locked up.”

“You should naturally pay for your crime,” Dongsik said. “But he hasn’t killed anyone.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. He told me he’s never done anything worse than I have.”

“You think you can believe his words?” Nam Sung Chul chuckled. “Lying is second nature to us.”

Inwoo listened to them impassively. Though Nam Sung Chul seemed to be talking to Dongsik, that wasn’t really the case. These things were said for Inwoo to hear. With so much at stake, Nam Sung Chul couldn't gamble his chances on Inwoo’s willingness to co-operate, so he wanted to put into his head the idea that Dongsik knew too much and was a liability best gotten rid of. Too bad Dongsik had beaten him by several months to discovering the real Seo Inwoo.

The picture was now clear. Dongsik had discovered some clue that had led him here tonight. Needing to adjust his plans, Nam Sung Chul had thought to make an alliance with Inwoo. And it wasn’t even a stupid idea, as such. After all, why would someone like Inwoo care about the fate of someone like Dongsik, especially if he had something to gain from it? A few months ago, Inwoo might even have considered it.

But now… it was nice to see Dongsik’s wild luck ruin things for other people, too.

There was a faint flash of light outside. Nam Sung Chul had his back to the window, so he didn’t see it. If Dongsik did, he didn’t react. Inwoo spent a moment watching for any other signs of movement, but there were none. Regardless, while these two were arguing about him, time was running out.

“You know, I’m a very busy person, so can we speed this up?” Inwoo turned to Dongsik. “Isn’t the screen of your phone broken?”

“Yes, why are you—”

“I guess this must be yours, then.” Inwoo took the phone out of his pocket. “He’s been having you on, you know. It was just lying on the ground back there.”

Nam Sung Chul narrowed his eyes.

“Is it really his?”

“Look how cheap this is. It’s definitely not mine. I’ve seen him unlock his phone in the office. What was the code again…”

Inwoo tried a few combinations before hitting the right one. Some things about Dongsik were easy to figure out. Inwoo tapped away the notification of missed calls.

“See?” He held the unlocked screen up for Nam Sung Chul to see. “It’s not enough to delete what’s in here, though. I mean, there’s cloud back-ups these days, and he may have already sent whatever he has to the police. I’m not sure if you know, but there’s that one he’s probably dating.”

“I know who you mean,” Nam Sung Chul said.

Dongsik blinked a few times, then became very interested in the floor.

“Anyway, you’re right,” Inwoo said. “I could use someone like you. Actually, not long ago I had someone in mind for exactly the same purpose, but that didn’t work out. That was his fault, too.” He inclined his head toward Dongsik.

Nam Sung Chul nodded sympathetically.

“So he’s been messing things up for you, too?”

Inwoo smiled.

“You have no idea how much.” He looked at Dongsik’s phone, weighing it in his hand. “I can definitely make this evidence disappear. But once you start bribing the police, they’re like leeches. I need to at least get the picture of how expensive you will get. You’ll know better than I what’s in here that matters, so you should take a look.”

“Okay.” Nam Sung Chul nodded. “Toss it over.”

Inwoo sighed.

“I understand you’re cautious, but if I toss it, you might drop your lighter. I don’t really enjoy being set on fire.”

Nam Sung Chul gripped the lighter tightly in his hand and stared at the phone in Inwoo’s. Not so sure of himself now that what he wanted was within his reach, but to get it he needed to put his trust in Inwoo. Which, he had to know, was a foolish thing to do. Between people like them, there was no trust, only assessment of profitability. But Nam Sung Chul also knew that now that he had invited Inwoo here, he couldn’t afford to have him turn against him.

“Fine. Bring it over here slowly. Keep your hands where I can see them.”

“Do you think I carry weapons around or something?” Inwoo spread his hands as he walked toward him. “You’re stressed out, so I’ll let it slide this once, but you should think carefully about how you talk to me. Your life is mine now.” As slowly and non-threateningly as he could, Inwoo handed the phone over.

Nam Sung Chul took the phone and backed a step away from Inwoo. He grinned at the phone in his hand and then turned to Dongsik. Inwoo smiled to himself. There it was. The gloating.

“What’s this?” Chuckling softly, Nam Sung Chul eyed Dongsik, who was still quietly staring at the floor. “You were so chatty earlier but now you’re quiet as a mouse. Did you finally realize it’s all over for you now?”

When his eyes were on Dongsik, Inwoo snatched the lighter from his hand. Nam Sung Chul looked back at him, startled.

“There are two things I really hate.” Inwoo looked at the lighter, turning it around in his hand. “One is someone trying to control me. The other is someone getting in the way of something I want. You’ve done both.”

“Something you want?” Nam Sung Chul eyed him warily, still unsure where the situation was heading. “What’s that?”

Inwoo turned his gaze slowly from the lighter to Nam Sung Chul.

“Dongsik, get out.”

“Hey.” Nam Sung Chul glanced at Dongsik, wavering between nervousness and anger.

“I’m not leaving you here on your own,” Dongsik said.

Nam Sung Chul clenched his jaw.

“ _No one_ is leaving.”

“Who are you worried about?” Inwoo asked. “You don’t need to worry about me, and shouldn’t worry about this guy.”

“Everyone.” Dongsik got off from the desk and walked to his side. “Let’s end this peacefully.” He brushed his hand over Inwoo’s arm.

Nam Sung Chul clutched Dongsik’s phone so tightly the cracked screen creaked.

“HEY!”

Inwoo winced at the strength of his voice.

“I don’t think he does peaceful.”

“Stop acting like you’re in control here.” Nam Sung Chul pointed the phone at Inwoo. “I really don’t get it. Why do you take his side? Does he have something he’s holding over your head?”

“You could say that.” Inwoo reached out to slip the lighter into Dongsik’s chest pocket. “It’s a long-term investment I’ve put a lot of effort in, so I can’t risk losing it now.”

Dongsik tried not to smile but was failing at it. Inwoo took longer than necessary to pull his hand away. This was hardly the time to think about it, but while it had been inevitable what had happened in his office would change things, this change… was something new.

Nam Sung Chul rested the hand holding Dongsik’s phone on the windowsill. He breathed out slowly, looking down at the floor. Then calmly he raised his eyes again, stretched his neck, and looked from Dongsik to Inwoo and back again.

“Do you think you two can ever trust each other? One is a hopeless do-gooder and the other…” He eyed Inwoo up and down and then turned to Dongsik. “Do you know what it’s like inside his head? I know because I’m the same. You couldn’t even handle it. It’s nothing but cold and dark.”

“I’ve seen a lot more cold and dark than you think,” Dongsik said.

“Oh, really?” Nam Sung Chul sneered. “Maybe you’re right. He hasn’t killed anyone. _Yet._ ”

Inwoo grew tense. This guy talked _far_ too much.

Nam Sung Chul leaned closer to Dongsik.

“You act like killing is a big deal. To people like us, it’s nothing. I found it was easy. The closer and more trusting the victim is, the easier it is. It will be easy for him, too, and you make an easy victim. Look at his face. He’s agreeing with me right now.”

Dongsik didn’t look.

“Give it a rest already,” he said. "You won’t convince me of anything.”

“Hmm?” Nam Sung Chul cocked his head mockingly. “Maybe you already knew he’s capable of terrible things. Do you get something out of keeping him in check? A rush of power?”

“Why is your thinking so twisted?” Dongsik asked. “It doesn't matter what he’s capable of, or what he _might_ do. As long as he’s not doing those things, it’s fine. The same would have been true for you, but you can’t take back what you’ve done anymore.”

Nam Sung Chul scoffed.

“Yes. That’s the point. We kill people to get rid of them permanently.”

“And that makes you a criminal,” Dongsik said. “Permanently.”

Inwoo stared fixedly at the stripes of light streaming through the window blinds. Cold and dark… was rapidly becoming quite accurate. Dongsik had to know in this situation he couldn’t afford the tiniest sign of hesitation. But could he really be this calm, deep down? No doubt he was realizing what he had almost gotten himself into, in the heat of a moment. Would they now go back to the quiet war, after all?

The yellow light of the lamps on the yard was drowned by flashes of red and blue. Dongsik breathed out in relief.

“See, that’s the police. It’s over now.”

“You think so?” Nam Sung Chul left the phone on the windowsill and backed away from the window. His hand closed around the crowbar that had been resting against the wall. With his other hand he reached for the light switch of the floor lamp in the corner beside him. Dongsik grasped Inwoo’s sleeve when he flipped the switch, but relaxed when the only thing that happened was the lamp flickering on.

“Have you ever seen what happens when you smash a light bulb when it’s on?” Nam Sung Chul looked at the lamp. “Unfortunately, right now in this room, you won’t have time to see the pretty sparks.”

Dongsik swallowed, still holding onto Inwoo’s sleeve.

“You’ll just get yourself killed, too.”

“See, I’m a desperate man now,” Nam Sung Chul said. “Do you want to save us all? Go out there and tell them you found nothing here. Until I’m sure the police are far away, he’ll stay here to chat with me.” He nodded at Inwoo.

“Go,” Inwoo said quietly. Getting Dongsik safely out had been the reason he had come here in the first place. Whatever else happened, he wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that goal.

“Or we can all burn,” Nam Sung Chul said. “Your choice.”

Dongsik didn’t reply. He was looking at the lamp. His gaze moved down to the floor, then along the wall. Inwoo looked in the same direction. The lamp was plugged to the wall not far. It would take three, maybe four steps to get there to unplug it.

Nam Sung Chul chuckled.

“Are you fast enough? If not, this could end really badly.”

Dongsik chewed on his lip, staring at the plug. He took a deep breath.

“Only one way to find out.”

He made an abrupt move forward. But instead of going for the plug, he went for Nam Sung Chul, catching the crowbar with both hands. Nam Sung Chul recovered fast from the surprise and caught Dongsik by the hair, pulling his head backward. It didn’t stop Dongsik from trying to wrestle the crowbar from his hand.

“You little…”

Nam Sung Chul slammed Dongsik’s head against the window frame. It was enough to make his legs give out, but not enough to get him to let go. Dongsik sunk down on his knees, all his energy focused on clutching the crowbar. Nam Sung Chul tried to jerk it from his grasp.

“Know… when to… quit!” He snarled and kicked Dongsik in the shoulder.

Dongsik yelped, finally letting go. Perhaps because he really couldn't hold on anymore, or perhaps because Inwoo was now behind Nam Sung Chul.

Inwoo caught hold of the cord of the window blinds. He yanked the blinds up and wrapped the cord twice around Nam Sung Chul’s neck, pulling him away from Dongsik. Nam Sung Chul tried to swing the crowbar backward at him, but couldn’t see where to hit, making it easy to dodge. With the full weight of his body, Inwoo slammed him sideways toward the wall. There was a sickening crunching sound, and the crowbar clattered down to the floor.

Inwoo took a few steps back, relaxing his grip on the cord but not letting go. Everything so far had happened almost on instinct. But now anything instinctive faded, giving way to cold, sharp clarity.

Nam Sung Chul turned to face him, one hand struggling to get a hold of the cord around his neck. He couldn’t lift the arm that had hit the wall.

“You think we’re the same?” Inwoo tilted his head slowly, watching the panic on his face. “You’re just dreaming big.”

Nam Sung Chul managed to get his fingers under the cord. Inwoo pulled it tighter to remind him of the second loop above the first.

“You’re like my brother. He thinks he’s something. But he’s nothing.” Inwoo glanced at Dongsik, who was sitting against the wall, clutching his head in his hands. “And he tries to take away things that are _mine_.”

There were infuriating reasons to not simply get rid of Jihoon permanently, but this guy? Why not? Things had only just started to go well, and now he had ruined everything.

Inwoo wrapped the cord slowly around his hand, savoring the fear on Nam Sung Chul’s eyes as he lost his ability to breathe. It really was easy. Humans were fragile. All it took was depriving the brain of oxygen just… long… enough…

Then Dongsik was up on his feet, one hand clutching the arm holding the cord, the other on Inwoo’s shoulder.

“Inwoo,” Dongsik said, and the warmth of him saying his name clashed with the coldness in Inwoo’s head. “That’s enough.”

Inwoo closed his eyes.

_Why not?_

“Stop.” Dongsik sounded like he was out of breath. “Please.”

Inwoo let the cord slide through his fingers and Nam Sung Chul coughed, gasping for air. Dongsik moved his hand behind Inwoo’s neck, leaning their heads together. His breathing was ragged. Inwoo frowned, turning his head slightly. Among the coarseness of Dongsik’s hair brushing against his cheek, there was something warm and sticky.

Inwoo opened his eyes. He dropped the cord and Nam Sung Chul slumped down to the floor, groaning. Just in time, Inwoo stopped Dongsik from doing the same. With some difficulty he managed to lower Dongsik gently down, resting his head on his lap. He brushed Dongsik’s hair out of the way to find the bleeding gash on his temple.

Trying to keep Dongsik comfortably lying still, Inwoo struggled out of his coat. He rolled the coat into a bundle, the silk lining outward, and pressed it over the wound to stop the bleeding. Dongsik gripped Inwoo’s other wrist, breathing rapidly with his eyes closed. It meant he was conscious, which was good. It also meant he was in a lot of pain, which was not good, but not something Inwoo could do anything about.

There were voices out in the yard now. In the dark, the faint light from the floor lamp was a clear signal for where to look. Nam Sung Chul struggled to get up to his feet.

“It’s either the police or me,” Inwoo said without looking up. “Your choice.”

Nam Sung Chul slid back down, letting out a bitter laugh that turned into a groan of pain.

“What the hell are you two?”

The metal stairs creaked. Someone was shouting about calling an ambulance. Nam Sung Chul wailed for someone to help him.

Inwoo tuned out of the noise. It had nothing to do with him now. He needed to maintain even pressure on the wound to keep the bleeding under control.

Dongsik’s breathing had grown more peaceful, but he was still clutching Inwoo’s wrist with the strength of all the pain in his head, fingernails digging into the skin. If it weren’t for that, Inwoo would have thought he was asleep.

Or something deeper than sleep. Just like years ago in Inwoo’s car, when much like today, he had stumbled into something he shouldn’t have.

It was almost funny. It was like they had come a full circle. Back to how everything had started.

Keeping Dongsik safe from monsters.


	15. Chapter 15

Inwoo navigated through the police questioning on an almost automated mode. It didn’t require much effort, only being truthful as much as was convenient, and purposefully vague about the details of how the events had played out. It was normal to not be able to remember such things after a traumatic experience.

He had come to the police station directly from the warehouse after Dongsik had been taken to the hospital. The detective had kept him talking almost an hour already. No one had told him how Dongsik was. Logically, they wouldn’t think it was important. Dongsik only happened to be an assistant manager in his company, after all.

And logically, Dongsik should only need a trip to the ER to get his head stitched up. He had been conscious the whole time until the paramedics arrived. Even shallow head wounds bled a lot. Inwoo repeated these things over and over in his mind as the minutes dragged on, but he was starting to lose patience. Who did these people think they were, that they thought they could keep him like this?

But no one else was in the condition to tell the police anything. Dongsik had his head wound. Bokyung’s ex-suspect was sleeping off the sedatives he’d been injected with. And so was the man from Chilsung’s gang who had come there with Dongsik. Inwoo had by now figured out those sedatives had been meant for Dongsik. The guy had been useful for something, after all.

And then there was Nam Sung Chul, who was valiantly trying to play the victim. From what Inwoo could tell, he had had an awful lot to say about him on the way to the hospital with his injured arm. It didn’t matter. There was no evidence to support his claims, and someone like him would never be able to shake Inwoo with his word alone.

Still, to keep it all tidy, it was necessary to suffer through the questioning. The more willing Inwoo was to tell the police everything they wanted to know, the more whatever they believed he had done would seem like self-defense. He ran his fingers idly over the red marks Dongsik’s nails had left on his wrist. Anything he did to protect what was his _should_ count as self-defense.

After another fifteen minutes of repeating things Inwoo was certain he had already told them three times, someone opened the door and told him he could leave. The detective, who had been in the middle of asking a question, closed his mouth and leaned his chin on his hand, staring at the wall.

Inwoo walked out without stopping to ask what the sudden change was about. It was obvious. Thanks to Jihoon’s glorious lifestyle, there probably wasn’t a single police station in the city that didn’t have someone reporting to his father. In truth, it was annoying to get off the hook with the family’s influence when he had being doing fine on his own, but the police were not his biggest problem now.

As soon as Inwoo reached the foyer, things started to get more complicated. Dongsik was there, with his head bandaged, making a small scene as he argued loudly about something with Bokyung while Chilsung tried to calm him down. Inwoo glanced around the foyer. There were a few people around, but only the usual rabble one might expect to find on a police station at night. Nonetheless, while it was good Dongsik was fine enough to be here, it would have been better for him to be somewhere else.

Dongsik brushed Chilsung away when he noticed Inwoo.

“You can leave now?” With unsteady steps, he walked to Inwoo and grasped his arm with both hands. “Let’s go home.”

 _Home?_ Inwoo had to change his previous assessment now that he was closer. Not only was Dongsik skipping over quite a few logical steps talking about going home, but his eyes were also barely focused. He was not fine enough to be here. Or at home.

“Why aren’t you in the hospital?” Inwoo asked.

“They fixed my head. I’m fine, so…” Contrary to his words, Dongsik almost lost his balance just standing and Inwoo had to steady him with his arm.

“Go back,” Inwoo said. “I’ll tell them to put you in a good room.”

“No. I just…” Dongsik paused to breathe, holding onto Inwoo’s arm for support.

Inwoo closed his eyes. How many times had it already been today that he had tried to stop Dongsik from putting himself in danger? Four? Five? And not a single time did he listen.

“I just need you to come with me,” Dongsik said.

Inwoo jerked his arm free from Dongsik’s grasp, causing him to stumble.

“Why?” he snapped. “You keep trying to get yourself killed instead of doing as I say, but I still have to take care of you?”

The foyer grew quiet. Inwoo took a deep breath. Great. Now he was the one making a scene. No matter how infuriating Dongsik’s tendency to be stubborn about all the wrong things was, what point was there in getting angry at him when he was all drugged up and delirious?

Bokyung, who had stopped Dongsik from falling over, pushed him toward Chilsung.

“Take him to my car,” she said, “I’ll be there in a moment.”

Inwoo couldn’t tell if Dongsik was mad or just tired, but he didn’t resist when Chilsung walked him out. Bokyung glanced at the curious people around them and turned to Inwoo.

“Can you come have a word with me?”

Resigned, Inwoo followed as she lead him to a quiet corner of the foyer. He really didn’t have time for some pointless lecture, but perhaps it would be fastest just to let her get it over with.

“I’m sorry,” Bokyung said when they were some distance away from prying ears. “I should have come up with some excuse to get you to the hospital with him. It must have been awful to be in there without knowing how he is.”

This was not the tone Inwoo had expected, but he wasn’t going to complain.

“I get it,” she continued, smiling sadly. “He’s like that. I don’t think he’s trying to get hurt on purpose, but once he decides to fight for something, he doesn’t quit. That will probably never change, but maybe he’ll start to be more careful now that he knows that if he gets hurt, he’s not the only one who’s getting hurt.”

Inwoo only nodded. It was pointless sentimental nonsense, but better than a lecture. Still, it was kind of annoying how she talked like she was the one who knew Dongsik better. Even if they had been friendly for a while, what could she understand when she didn’t even know Dongsik’s darkest secrets?

“I’ll take him back to the hospital and make sure he stays there,” Bokyung said. “And I’ll find someone to give you a ride home. You can go see him tomorrow after you’ve rested a bit.”

Inwoo was about to reply when he was distracted by the fact that something else was drawing the attention of the people in the foyer. He looked around to find his father entering through the main doors, accompanied by his usual entourage of bodyguards and other underlings. Bokyung gave Inwoo an uncertain glance.

“Go take him to the hospital,” Inwoo said quietly. “I’ll call them about the room.”

Bokyung nodded and walked out. Inwoo turned around and watched as his father walked toward him, wearing an expression of fatherly concern that Inwoo knew was anything but genuine. What was he even doing awake at this hour? Though perhaps he had actually stopped sleeping years ago and was now thriving purely on contempt.

Inwoo lowered his eyes when his father stopped in front of him and clasped his shoulders.

“Were you hurt?”

“No.”

“That’s a relief.” His father patted his shoulders and turned to one of the men he had brought along. “That other one is our company’s employee, so go make sure he receives good care.”

Inwoo seethed quietly as the man went out the way Bokyung had gone. Hopefully she had had the sense to run. About the last thing Dongsik needed was any care from his father. Inwoo had hoped it would take at least until morning for his father to find out about Dongsik’s involvement, but since he already knew, that had to be why he had bothered to come in person with this ridiculous father-of-the-year act. He was too eager to start digging into what had happened.

Despite their curiosity, the people in the foyer knew better than to linger around. When the place was mostly empty, Inwoo’s father turned to him, his expression now several degrees colder. 

“Why is it Yook Dongsik again?”

“The man who did this would be the one knows why he targeted him,” Inwoo said.

“To the very end you will play ignorant? Fine.” His father summoned another of his men closer. “He will make sure you get safely home. I need to take care of a few things.”

He headed inside, and Inwoo strode out with the man assigned to shadow him trying to keep up. _Safely home_ only meant he was expected to obediently stay out of more trouble. This was ridiculous. Even if home was where he was going anyway, he would get there on his own terms.

Once outside, he glanced back at the station. There was no doubt his father would get anything he wanted to know out of the detective. Besides the incident tonight, what else might the detective know about Dongsik and his hobbies? It was time to think up a new approach. The image of harmless Dongsik was probably destroyed for good.

Bokyung seemed to have left with Dongsik already, but Chilsung was still lingering out in the parking lot. When he saw Inwoo, he took a few lazy steps toward him. Inwoo slowed down. Had he stayed behind to pick a fight? Everyone seemed to want to get in his way today. But unexpectedly, Chilsung held out a set of car keys.

“I drove your car here. The keys were in the pocket of your coat, so…”

Inwoo figured he had to be more exhausted than he felt. He had forgotten he had left his car behind at the warehouse when he had come to the station with the police. He didn’t know what had happened to his coat, either. In any case, it was probably ruined.

But since Chilsung didn’t appear to be here to start a fight, perhaps he would be of some use.

“You can drive me home, then.” Inwoo glanced at his father’s man over his shoulder. “You can go.”

“The chairman said—”

Inwoo gritted his teeth.

_“Get lost.”_

The man didn’t argue, but after backing away a few steps, he hovered around while Inwoo got into the car. Chilsung didn’t argue, either, but got in like it wasn’t strange at all for him to take orders from Inwoo. Whatever his motivation for being so compliant was, it wasn’t high on the list of things Inwoo needed to focus on for the moment.

As soon as the car was on the road, Inwoo called the hospital and told them to put Dongsik in the best room they had and not let anyone try to move him anywhere else, no matter what. Though his father would do so anyway if he wanted to, but at least Inwoo could slow him down for as long as it took the hospital staff to fret over who they wanted to anger.

“Is the hospital a hotel?” Chilsung said when Inwoo ended the call. “You just order a room. Must be nice to have money.”

“It’s not the money, it’s the family name,” Inwoo said. It was the annoying truth, and why he needed to have the power of the family in his own hands, so it couldn’t be used against him like this.

“Pull over somewhere convenient,” he said, “I can drive myself.”

“I’ll just get in trouble if you crash your car or something,” Chilsung said. “I’ll drive you home, it’s no big deal.”

Inwoo glanced at him, frowning, then turned to look out of the window.

“You must be angry about what I said to Dongsik back there,” he said. “If you’re planning to take me somewhere to beat me up, let’s do that some other time. I can’t spare the time right now.”

Chilsung scoffed.

“You think I don’t get it already, about you two?”

Inwoo didn’t reply. He didn’t care if he got it or not, and in any case that didn’t really say anything about what Chilsung might be planning.

“I definitely won’t approve of someone like you,” Chilsung said, “but this once I think I should just leave you be. I saw you back there, you know. You looked like you would fight even the paramedics when they tried to take huyngnim from you.”

Inwoo couldn't quite remember that part, but that had to be an exaggeration.

“But really,” Chilsung went on, “how could you get angry at him like that? It’s because that crazy jerk was saying some stuff about you that he thought he has to come and tell the police you were only there to save him.”

“I told him he doesn’t need to worry about me,” Inwoo said.

“Keep acting like that and he’ll stop worrying,” Chilsung said. “It may be hard to believe, but he has his limits, too.”

Inwoo leaned his head against the backrest. Limits? Like how Dongsik had barely stopped him from strangling someone in cold blood? And now that incident felt like nothing. He couldn’t find the slightest hint of shock or remorse inside his head. Not that he even expected to. He couldn’t tell why, even to Dongsik, a life like Nam Sung Chul’s was worth preserving. But that was a limit. Something that couldn’t be taken back. Apparently.

“Do you really want to go home?” Chilsung asked when he stopped at traffic lights. “Not the hospital?”

“I can’t go there right now,” Inwoo said. Would going there make any difference? It was more likely it would only complicate things more.

Chilsung tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, waiting for the lights to change.

“No, this won’t do.” He made a sudden u-turn, making Inwoo grimace at the way he was handling his car.

“It’s something like your family can’t know, right?” Chilsung said. “I’m good at keeping people out, so go see him and leave the rest to me. Like I said, I don’t approve of you, so I’ll definitely never help you again. This is your once in a lifetime chance.”

Inwoo doubted he would ever regret missing out on that chance, but he didn’t argue. He would only make sure Dongsik had actually ended up in the hospital and hadn’t run off to do something crazy again. After that, it would surely be easier to concentrate on coming up with a plan to sort everything out.

There was no sign of his father’s men when the two of them got to the hospital. Though Inwoo was certain his father was somehow keeping an eye on things, he suddenly couldn’t bring himself to care all that much. On top of everything else his father was going to get suspicious about, coming to check on Dongsik in the hospital was an insignificant thing. Nonetheless, Chilsung stayed behind in the hallway to keep an eye for intruders while Inwoo went into Dongsik’s room.

He had hoped Dongsik would be sleeping, but he was lying awake, blinking at the ceiling. When he noticed Inwoo, he tried to sit up but then winced and gave up.

“Are you okay?” he asked blearily, settling back down.

“Should you be asking that when you’re in that state yourself?” Inwoo asked. “Why did you think you needed to come to the police station like that? Of course they’ll ask you for a statement tomorrow when you’re not high on painkillers.”

“Oh. Right.” Dongsik closed his eyes, his brow furrowing into a slight frown. He seemed to hover right at the edge of falling into a drug-induced sleep, but was stubbornly fighting it. “That was the chairman at the police station, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry. I messed things up for you, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

“You’re angry.” Dongsik sighed deeply. “I knew you would be, that’s why I wanted you to come home with me, so…”

Inwoo waited for him to continue, but he didn’t.

“So?” Inwoo asked. “What were you going to do to me after taking me home to make me not angry?”

Dongsik was quiet for a moment.

“I don’t know.”

“How can you stop like that?” Inwoo walked over to the bed and sat down on the chair beside it. “This was just getting interesting.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You said that already.”

Dongsik sighed again.

“What do you want me to say?” Inwoo asked. “Should I lie and say it’s fine? You know it’s not fine.”

Dongsik opened his eyes and stared silently up at the ceiling. Inwoo leaned his arm on the edge of the bed and rested his head on it. What was it about that face that made him want to give in?

“You did what you thought you had to,” Inwoo said. “I’m never going to agree with that, and you’re never going to think you were actually wrong even if you apologize. What more is there to say about that?”

Dongsik moved his hand so that his fingers brushed against Inwoo’s.

“Don’t just try to fix everything by yourself,” he said. “Tell me what I can do.”

“Sleep. Don’t leave the hospital again until the doctor says you can. That’s what you can do right now.” Inwoo leaned the back of his hand against Dongsik’s, hooking their index fingers together. “And you can think about your plan to make me not angry.”

Though perhaps later, after Dongsik had thought about what had happened with a clear head, he wouldn’t be so eager to drag Inwoo home with him anymore.

“You didn’t answer before,” Dongsik said sleepily. “Are you okay?”

Inwoo closed his eyes.

“I don’t know.”

Dongsik moved to rest his head against Inwoo’s. Inwoo listened to his breathing grow progressively more peaceful and steady. Who had been so careless they had let him run away from the ER? Had they even assigned him a decent doctor? That was something Inwoo needed to look into… no… it would be better to just get his own doctor to check on him…

Inwoo jerked awake when a nurse came to change Dongsik’s IV. He glanced at the clock. Six fifteen. How had he fallen asleep like this?

Dongsik was holding onto his wrist again. Evidently even drugged sleep didn’t stop him from stubbornly clinging on. Inwoo freed himself slowly to avoid waking him up.

“You should have at least asked for a pillow,” the nurse said, when Inwoo rubbed his stiff neck.

Inwoo took a proper look at her. It was Jihoon’s helpful nurse. Was that his father’s doing? Or was Inwoo getting paranoid? Nothing suggested she hadn’t stayed loyal to him the last time, and there weren’t all that many nurses on this ward. It could be just a coincidence.

“Can I get you something now?” she asked.

“No, I have to go.” Inwoo got up from the chair. “You know who my doctor is, right? Tell him to take over here. And let me know if anything unusual happens.”

“Actually,” the nurse said, walking to the hallway after him, “there’s a shady guy hanging around. Over there.”

The shady guy was only Chilsung, sitting on a couch in the hallway with his eyes closed and cradling a cup of coffee in his hands.

“He’s not a problem,” Inwoo said. “Don’t mind him.”

She nodded hesitantly and went back into the room. Yawning widely, Chilsung got up from the couch and walked up to Inwoo.

“Finally,” he said. “You said you’d only be a minute, but you were sleeping so cutely together all ni...” He coughed and turned away, sipping his coffee.

Inwoo glanced over his shoulder to find Dongsik’s sister a few steps away.

“Director Seo, why are you…” She looked at the door of Dongsik’s room and frowned.

Chilsung cleared his throat.

“You must be here to see hyungnim,” he said cheerfully. “So early.”

“I thought it would be better to check on him before my husband goes to work so I don’t need to bring the kid along,” she said, looking from Chilsung to Inwoo and then to the door. “What’s going on?”

“Go see him first.” Chilsung opened the door for her. “Let’s talk later.”

“How is he even in this kind of room?” she asked as she stepped in.

Chilsung closed the door after her and winced.

“I haven’t even asked him what he wants his family to know about what happened last night.”

“They're going to know everything,” Inwoo said. “Or at least as much as: Yook Dongsik, employee of Daehan Securities, risked his life to catch a killer and save an innocent man. That’s the news story I’m going to make happen. You should tell Dongsik when he’s awake, so he won’t make up some wild excuse for his family.”

“News?” Chilsung scowled. “Do you think he wants something like that?”

“No. But while Dongsik has all the attention on him, it will be harder for my father to do whatever he is planning to do,” Inwoo said. And since Nam Sung Chul had wanted to make Dongsik a hero, why not give him just that? There were many paths to sweet revenge.

Chilsung nodded slowly.

“I admit you’re a bit cool. But I still don’t approve of you.”

“Did anyone come by during the night?” Inwoo asked.

“Officer Shim came back to make sure hyungnim is staying put, but she left since you were here. No one else. Except for the cute nurse just now.”

“Don’t get distracted,” Inwoo said. “You can’t trust the nurse. My car keys?”

Chilsung took the keys out of his pocket and handed them over.

“Do you think even the nurses here are spies?”

“I know she is, because she’s my spy. But you still can’t trust her.” Inwoo flipped the keys in his hand. “She called you shady, by the way.”

Chilsung replied with a resigned sigh and stalked back to the couch, tossed his empty coffee mug to the trash, and settled down on his back with a pillow over his face.

Inwoo turned to look at the door to Dongsik’s room. Why was he still hesitant to leave? There was nothing for him to do here, and a million things to do elsewhere. While it hardly mattered where he slept, he had stayed for too long already.

He drove home only to shower and change his clothes before heading to the office. The building was still quiet. The security guard perked up and pretended to not have been dozing off when Inwoo walked past.

In his office, the remnants of the previous night’s meal were still waiting on the edge of the coffee table for someone to throw them away. Inwoo walked to his desk and sat down in his chair. Another thing that was waiting was the report on the accursed international deal. How long had it been? Barely over twelve hours. The amount of chaos Dongsik had managed to create in that time was quite impressive. But what was there to do about that, other than start putting things back in order?


	16. Chapter 16

For the few days Dongsik was in the hospital, Inwoo didn’t go back there. Both Chilsung and the nurse confirmed that someone was keeping an eye on the door to Dongsik’s room, which had to be his father’s doing. Since the police had taken Dongsik’s phone as evidence from the warehouse, he had no other easy way to contact him either. It might have taken only a small but poignant nudge to get the police to speed up returning the phone to its owner, but Inwoo had done nothing about that. He couldn’t afford more distractions. He needed to focus on handling his father.

Or he would have, if his father hadn’t been so mysteriously quiet. Inwoo had expected to get called in to give an explanation the morning after the incident, but that hadn’t happened. That was strange. His father usually preferred to not give people time to think before cornering them. Of course, such a tactic would not work to make Inwoo nervous, and if biding his time was his father’s newest approach achieve that, it had at least worked to make him restless and irritable.

Through his own sources with the police, Inwoo knew Nam Sung Chul’s case would cause him no more trouble. Bokyung’s suspect had woken up and told the police how he had been kidnapped. As the previous suspect his word could be doubted, but the doctor’s statement about how thoroughly drugged he had been made the picture very clear. He had no clue who either Inwoo or Dongsik were, which made the two of them merely innocent bystanders who had gotten dragged in.

His father had no doubt heard the same things. Nonetheless, he had pressured the police to keep Inwoo’s involvement with the incident quiet. In the end, that only worked in Inwoo’s favor. He had no use for that kind of publicity, while Dongsik had much to gain from being the center of attention. The news about Dongsik’s heroic deed hadn’t brought him any great fame, but it had the people in the office talking, and for Inwoo’s purposes that was enough.

Finally, on the day Dongsik was discharged from the hospital, Inwoo was summoned to meet his father at the family’s hunting cabin. He wasn’t in the mood to spend time with his father, but it wasn’t an invitation he could refuse.

The day was bright but cold. Arriving at the cabin, Inwoo noted that judging by the number of cars on the driveway, his father had brought along more bodyguards than he could possibly need for a casual hunting trip with his son. There was no one in the cabin, though the door wasn’t locked. After looking around for a moment, he found everyone gathered out at the edge of the woods. Then he saw Dongsik there, as well, and the strange picture with the pack of bodyguards started to make sense.

There was no better place for his father to make Dongsik feel insignificant and powerless. The cabin was remote enough that Dongsik probably didn’t even know exactly where, or how far from everything, he was. But he would know who these lands belonged to, and that out here he was at his father’s mercy.

But if Inwoo’s father was putting this much effort into intimidating Dongsik, he wasn’t planning on doing much else. Yet. At the moment, he seemed to be explaining something about the area to Dongsik, who was listening much the same way he listened to Team Leader Gong talk at work — like he would have preferred to be anywhere else but tried not to show it. When Dongsik saw Inwoo approach, for a moment he looked like he wanted to sink through the ground, before regaining his composure.

Ignoring him, Inwoo stopped beside his father, who glanced at him over his shoulder.

“Ah, Inwoo. It’s good you could come so fast,” he said, as if he didn’t always expect his children to show up immediately when he called them in.

“Why did you want to see me?” Inwoo asked.

“Since it was in the news, I’m sure you have heard that one of our employees did a very noteworthy thing.” He turned to Inwoo with a crooked smile on his face. “I plan to reward him, but you’re still his direct superior, so it’s best to consult you about it first.”

Having Dongsik stand out in the cold was quite the reward. Whatever this charade his father was currently playing out was, Inwoo was already tired of it.

“I was thinking of promoting him,” his father said, “but there’s no suitable position in the main office. What do you think? Would there be one in a branch office somewhere?”

Dongsik perked up.

“Thank you, but I don’t—”

“I’m not asking you.”

“There’s no need to go that far to reward him,” Inwoo said. “What he did has nothing to do with the company.” And he would not let Dongsik get sent off to some remote place where he might mysteriously disappear.

“You don’t think he deserves a reward? Isn’t it a little callous to say that when he’s right here?”

“It doesn’t seem like he’s willing to accept it, anyway,” Inwoo said.

His father turned to Dongsik.

“Is that so?”

“I really don’t need any kind of reward, but thank you,” Dongsik said.

“I see.” For a moment Inwoo’s father watched Dongsik in silence, and Inwoo knew he was trying to figure out how he would succeed at tripping Dongsik up.

“But come to think of it,” his father said slowly as if he had only just remembered, “you were also involved with that incident with Jihoon before. That wasn’t a small matter, and yet you have been silent about it. Don’t you have anything you want to say, now that you have the chance?”

Dongsik made a small nervous movement, but at the same time he breathed out, seeming almost relieved. He had to be as tired of this game as Inwoo was.

“I… I don’t hold anyone else responsible for that, so I don’t think there’s any need to say anything.”

Inwoo’s father laughed, but there was a chilly edge to the laughter.

“That’s a good answer. Did Inwoo teach you to answer like that?”

“No,” Dongsik said, looking down at the ground. “Why would he…”

“Why not? He should manage you better if he’s taken you under his wing.”

“It’s not like that.” Dongsik raised his head again, looking determined. “He’s only looking after me as an employee, that’s all.”

“So it’s not that you two helped each other when Jihoon was making trouble? I don’t really mind that. Some power-struggle between brothers is only natural.”

“No,” Dongsik said firmly. “Nothing like that happened.”

Though Dongsik was doing fine on his own, Inwoo couldn’t help but think he should have taught him how to survive this kind of questioning by his father. He had been too determined to keep Dongsik from having anything to do with his family to think about preparing him for dealing with them. Why was that? It was such a foolish oversight.

“No?” His father watched Dongsik with stern eyes for a moment. “Still, no matter how I look, I don’t like this picture.”

He turned his attention back to Inwoo, any pretense of having a friendly chat fading away.

“I can’t expect Jihoon to manage the company if he keeps losing to you,” he said, “so I need to be harsh on him this time for him to learn. If there’s still something Jihoon has to sort out with him, he can do it himself.”

The conclusion Inwoo drew from that was that his father hadn’t found out anything new about what had happened between Jihoon and Dongsik. If he had, and since he clearly thought Inwoo had been part of it, he wouldn’t leave it be. After Dongsik’s previous threats, perhaps the news of what had happened to Nam Sung Chul had scared Jihoon even further into silence.

“However, there is another problem.” His father glanced at the bodyguard nearest to him, and in unison, they all backed further away. Dongsik grew tense, and Inwoo had to admit there was some reason to. There were not many things his father would not allow his most trusted people to hear.

“You’ve always been clever and careful,” his father said. “I have nothing to complain about how you handled the police this time, either. But you must know I don’t believe a word of the story you gave them. I wonder if the man whose arm your broke is the one telling the truth.”

“Of course you can’t trust what Nam Sung Chul says,” Dongsik cut in. “He’ll say anything to get himself out of trouble.”

It was essentially the same thing Inwoo would have said, but he hoped Dongsik would stay quiet. He could tell his father wasn’t in the mood to tolerate someone speaking out of turn. Dongsik had been so timid around his father back in the office. Where did this boldness come from now?

His father did not spare Dongsik even a glance.

“He’s very keen to defend you,” he said, his eyes fixed on Inwoo.

“It’s just the truth,” Dongsik said.

“Rather than what you did, I’m more interested in why you were there in the first place.” Before Inwoo could answer, his father turned to Dongsik. “Since you have so many opinions you can’t keep quiet, do you have anything to say about that?”

“Uh, well…” Dongsik hesitated for a moment. “I heard Nam Sung Chul sent him a message asking him to come there.”

“Yes, that’s the story. That he was only curious about such a strange invitation, so he followed it. But I know my son too well. He wouldn’t have gone there unless there was something worthwhile for him to gain.” He paused for a moment, looking at Dongsik thoughtfully. “And it seems it was even something worth killing over.”

“That’s not true,” Dongsik said. “Nam Sung Chul attacked us first. It’s because the situation got dangerous that—”

“But when it comes to Inwoo, it may not take all that much to get him to kill someone.”

Dongsik fell silent, seeming to not know what to say. Inwoo’s father narrowed his eyes.

“You already knew that. It’s just like that man said.”

“No.” Dongsik turned his gaze downward, and though his voice grew quiet, Inwoo could detect the anger underneath. “How can you…”

“If people keep telling him lies like that, of course he’ll get the wrong idea,” Inwoo said pointedly.

His father looked at him, his expression turning icy.

“Are you trying to tell _me_ what I should say?”

Inwoo knew he was crossing the line, but the conversation was heading down a dangerous track, and he wasn’t sure which of the three of them might lose it first.

His father turned away, staring out to the woods for a while.

“You know how it is,” he said. “Nothing is more important than the family’s reputation. That means that the more Jihoon makes trouble, the more _you_ can’t afford to make a single mistake.”

Dongsik raised his head.

“What? How is that fair? Don’t you know how much he works to—”

“Be quiet,” Inwoo snapped. Just once could he not try to pick a fight he wouldn’t be able to win?

Dongsik seemed to go through some kind of inner battle, but he closed his mouth, and biting his lower lip, turned his eyes back toward the ground. Inwoo’s father eyed him coldly.

“Fair? There is nothing fair in life. Inwoo knows that well because that’s what I have carefully taught him since he was a child. The company’s successor will never have things easy, so he must be better and smarter than everyone else. He shouldn’t have time for foolish distractions. Nothing can be more important than the company.” He turned to Inwoo. “Isn’t that right?”

“Yes,” Inwoo said almost automatically. This was funny. His father always talked like he planned to give the company to him when it worked as a handy bait to keep him under his control.

“If I need to be harsh on Jihoon, you know I must do the same to you. Don’t think you can relax while your brother isn’t here. I can take away anything you think is yours.” His father glanced at Dongsik. “Starting with him. You barely have him under control. I’d expect you to know by now that if he keeps being a problem like this, you must cut him off yourself, instead of doing unnecessary things to protect him. If you’re going to kill someone, at least do it for a better reason.”

From the way Dongsik’s fists clenched, Inwoo could tell his self-control was being tested again. But Dongsik only lowered his head even further, closing his eyes.

“I want him out of my company,” Inwoo’s father said. “Since you made that more difficult, now figure out how to do that without causing any damage to the company’s image. Is that clear?”

“Yes,” Inwoo said. There was nothing else he could say. Starting to fight his father openly would work about as well as Dongsik attacking Nam Sung Chul.

His father nodded, looking satisfied.

“I know how ambitious you are. You wouldn’t let something like this get in your way. Stop doing things that are not like you at all. Focus on what you want to achieve.” He sighed, rubbing his hands together. “The day has turned so cold I don’t feel like hunting anymore. I’ll leave it to you to deal with the rest.”

Inwoo stood still while his father walked away with his bodyguards following behind. After the sound of the cars driving away grew distant, he strode into the cabin. He took a bottle of whiskey from the bookshelf, poured some into a glass and gulped it down in one go. He slammed the glass back down on the shelf.

So, in the end, he was still getting punished for Jihoon’s mistakes. And this time he actually had done almost nothing. Jihoon had caused all his problems himself. Through the window he could see Dongsik slowly making his way toward the cabin, hanging his head. Inwoo poured himself another drink.

Wasn’t this it? The reason why from the start he had wanted to keep Dongsik from having anything more to do with his family. Deep down he had known the whole time that once that happened he wouldn’t be able to keep him. Even if Dongsik wasn’t already known as Jihoon’s enemy, with that temper of his, it would be impossible to fit him into the picture of someone who worked for Inwoo. And even if Dongsik might agree to play along, Inwoo wouldn’t be able to stand seeing him act like… a servant.

Dongsik opened the door, and by the time he had stepped in, he had assumed a more chipper attitude that was so clearly fake, that would have been obvious even if Inwoo hadn’t seen how dejected he had looked outside.

“Don’t worry about it,” Dongsik said. “I’ll resign. I’ll say this incident made me want to do something else in my life. That won’t make the company look bad.”

Inwoo emptied his glass again and decided two shots wasn’t enough. He took the bottle, along with the glass, and sat down on the sofa.

“I told you before that I’ll handle any trouble my father causes,” he said, setting the glass down on the coffee table. Perhaps Dongsik didn’t know that Inwoo agreeing with his father didn’t necessarily mean he had any plans to do as he was told. Was there any point in correcting that misconception? In truth, Inwoo wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He needed a plan, but somehow he was too tired to think.

“I know, but isn’t it a simple solution?” The fake cheerfulness started to fade from Dongsik’s voice. “You’ve done so much for me already, and I... I think I can’t stay there anymore, anyway.”

Inwoo paused in the middle of pouring himself a third drink. Did that mean he couldn’t stay in the company, or near Inwoo?

“Do what you want, then.” He swallowed down the drink and reached for the bottle again, but Dongsik was faster and snatched the bottle away.

“You’re drinking too fast.”

Dongsik went to place the bottle back on the shelf, then sat down on the sofa beside Inwoo and took the empty glass from his hand. Inwoo didn’t resist. There seemed to be something wrong with the whiskey, anyway. It should have at least stung his throat a bit, but he could feel nothing. He leaned his head against the backrest and turned to look at Dongsik.

“You’re right. I’ve done an awful lot for you.” He moved closer, pulling Dongsik toward him by the collar of his coat. “I should at least get something out of it.”

Dongsik was flustered for a second, but then he turned his head away.

“Stop that.”

Inwoo laughed tiredly.

“I guess you really did come to your senses.” He leaned his forehead against Dongsik’s shoulder. “You don’t want this anymore.” Somehow that did sting, even if the alcohol didn’t.

“I think you’re not clear-headed enough to know what _you_ want,” Dongsik said. “I’m sorry for saying this right now, but remember what happened the last time you got impulsive like this? Just because I let that go, do you think it didn’t hurt?”

“Why shouldn’t you hurt?” Inwoo murmured against his shoulder. “You keep making me suffer.” He slid his hand up the back of Dongsik’s neck to his hair, breathing in his scent. Was Jihoon’s drug addiction like this? He had to know it brought him nothing but trouble, but he ignored the danger because he couldn’t stop wanting it.

“Give me your car keys,” Dongsik said.

“Are you asking for the car as some kind of compensation?” Inwoo let his hand drop from Dongsik’s hair to his shoulder. “Pick something else, you can’t have the car.”

“I’ll drive you somewhere else to calm down. I don’t think this place is good for you.”

Inwoo pulled away from him, looking around the cabin. He couldn’t tell if the place was good or bad, but there was little point in staying in a hunting cabin unless there was something to shoot. And unfortunately, his father had already left.

“Fine,” he said. “You had me driving you around the city before. You should do at least that much.”

It took a while for Dongsik to find the way to the main road, as Inwoo refused to help. Eventually they made it back to the city, and Dongsik started to suggest various places he thought Inwoo would want to visit. Inwoo rejected them all. He was not in the mood for socializing, and it was too early to go drinking. Not that he even felt like doing that anymore, either. He leaned back with his eyes closed, listening to how annoyingly loud the city was.

When Dongsik stopped the car after a while, Inwoo opened his eyes and glanced out of the window.

“You brought me to your place.” He turned to look at Dongsik.

“I ran out of ideas.” Dongsik moved his hand on the steering wheel, and although he tried to hide it, Inwoo didn’t miss the fact that he winced as he did so. Inwoo had heard from his doctor that in addition to the cut to his temple, Dongsik hadn’t gotten off so easy from the kick to his shoulder, either. There was no major damage, but it would still take a few weeks to heal properly.

“Should I take you to your own place?” Dongsik asked.

“Are you punishing yourself for something or do you just like the pain?” Inwoo asked.

“It’s just a bit sore,” Dongsik said, stretching his shoulder. “It’s not that bad.”

Inwoo scoffed.

“Are you even in the condition to drive?”

“I wouldn’t drive if I wasn’t sure I can do it. Stop worrying so much. I’m fine. Almost.”

“I worry about myself,” Inwoo said. “And the car. Do you have any idea how much this is worth?”

Dongsik nodded.

“Yes, I looked that up last summer.”

“Right. Of course you did.” Inwoo unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door. “I guess that’s why you want to have it.”

“I don’t want your car!”

The building hadn’t changed a bit since the last time Inwoo had been here. The only difference was that it was bright outside, and there was no Jihoon to drag along. Even so, it all looked strange somehow, as if far too many things had happened since then for it to have been such a short time ago. Although Dongsik tried to keep up, Inwoo reached the door to his apartment before him.

“What’s the code? Your mother’s birthday?” He punched in the numbers and the door unlocked. Sighing deeply, he pulled the door open. “Aren’t you making it too easy for people to break in?”

“Who would know that?” Dongsik caught up with him, exasperated. “Wait, how did _you_ know that?”

Inwoo walked in and threw his coat on the back of a chair. He had no idea if the buzzing in his head had anything to do with alcohol, but whatever it was, he needed it to fade away before he could drive himself home. He lay down on the sofa, covering his eyes with his arm. He heard Dongsik close the door, and after a moment walk up to him.

“Move over a bit.”

Inwoo lifted his arm to glare at him with half-open eyes.

“Of course you regret stopping me earlier, but you lost your chance. Forget it.”

“That’s not it,” Dongsik said softly, nudging Inwoo’s leg with his knee. “Just move a bit.”

Grudgingly, Inwoo did so, and Dongsik joined him on the sofa. For a second Inwoo thought he had been lying, but Dongsik only rested his head on Inwoo’s shoulder and cuddled to his side with one arm over his chest.

Inwoo frowned.

“What are you doing?”

“I think this is what you need.”

Inwoo decided that being like this wasn’t unpleasant, so he left Dongsik be. He closed his eyes. Somehow this kind of closeness made him feel more sleepy than the alcohol had. His hand seemed to want to end up in Dongsik’s hair on its own, so he had to force it down on the sofa.

“Do you remember telling me I act like I can’t make up my mind?” Inwoo asked. “What about you, then? You said we should just get along, then you kissed me, then you refused to, and now this? Is there any logic to the things you do?”

Dongsik didn’t reply. He shifted his head to rest more comfortably on Inwoo’s shoulder, and after a while, his hand moved to play idly with his collar.

“You know,” he said eventually, “I thought what you did that time we had dinner at my father’s restaurant was just because it was so funny to you to mess with my head. And later I told myself the reason I wanted to make peace with you despite that was because it was too exhausting to be angry all the time. But I just didn’t want to admit it to myself, it was because I really wanted to know if you had a different reason, too. I—”

“Don’t overthink it,” Inwoo said, suddenly not wanting to hear more. “You have a lingering attachment to nice Inwoo, or you’re grateful because I saved you. That’s all.”

Dongsik made a soft huffy sound, and Inwoo winced. At the very least, Dongsik really couldn't make up his mind about what kind of mood he was going to be in.

“Of course I’m grateful,” Dongsik said. “But I’m grateful to many other people, too. Do you think I can’t tell the difference? And I never thought of nice Inwoo like that. That was just… things were difficult back then, so I needed an excuse to find some direction for my life. Maybe I should have told you this sooner so you wouldn’t have to gotten so jealous of your own fake alter ego.”

Inwoo opened his eyes.

“What? I wasn’t—”

“Yes, right, you definitely were not jealous.” Dongsik sighed. “Don’t you know how you’ve been acting? How stupid do you think I am? You know, you’re really annoying sometimes.”

“Weren’t you trying to make me feel better?” Inwoo asked. “What’s this hostility now?”

“Would being nice to you even make you feel better? You’d just ignore me.”

“Keep up that attitude and I’ll drop you to the floor.” Inwoo shifted the position of his shoulder deliberately in a way that made Dongsik less comfortable.

Dongsik lifted his head slightly.

“You wouldn’t. I’m still injured.”

“What makes you think that will stop me?”

“I heard something funny from the nurse at the hospital,” Dongsik said. “They had to do all kinds of tests no one thought I actually needed because _someone_ kept pestering the doctor about it. At least now I have an excellent picture of what’s not wrong with me, so thanks. And stop squirming.” He poked at Inwoo’s side, forcing him to shift back to his original position, then stubbornly he settled his head back on his shoulder.

“I knew that nurse couldn’t be trusted,” Inwoo said. “If she was telling you that, who knows what she’s been telling other people.”

“I think she just thought it was fine to talk to me. She told me she's grateful that you put an end to what your brother what's doing at the hospital. Before that night, she'd even been thinking of quitting her job because she couldn't stand being part of it.”

“She could probably tell that’s exactly the kind of sob story that will soften you up.”

“I doubt that,” Dongsik said. “But don’t worry, I didn’t tell her anything. Even I know that much.”

“Tell her what?” Inwoo asked. “What I did that night?”

“No, I meant—”

“You can stop pretending already,” Inwoo said. This topic had to come up eventually. They’d skirted around it for long enough. “I know you didn’t forget what happened. Whatever your… not gratitude is, to someone like you, something like that will change everything. Do you think I don’t know that?”

“I’m not pretending anything,” Dongsik said, his tone growing softer again. “You stopped. It’s fine.”

“Don’t get the wrong idea. I stopped because it would have been too much hassle to deal with the aftermath. That’s all.”

And it would have been so easy to lie. To say, it wasn’t like that, it was only the stress of the moment. Even Inwoo himself wasn’t sure why he was being so honest all of a sudden. These were things he would never admit, even to people like his father who acted like already knew. Because he was always clever and careful.

“Whatever the reason was, since you stopped, it’s good enough.” Dongsik lifted his head again. “Do you need more reasons for the next time? You could lose everything you’ve worked for. Or you could end up in prison. Think about that. You’d hate it there. Or… since you said before I can’t die without your permission, then you can’t hurt anyone without my permission.”

Inwoo sighed, turning his head away.

“You’re really not scared of saying anything anymore.”

Dongsik lowered his head back down.

“You can stop trying to push me away,” he said quietly. “I get it. I heard your father. I won’t make things difficult, so… can’t you just stay with me like this for a while? I barely made it home from the hospital before I was dragged to meet your father. I’m tired.”

“You said this is what I need,” Inwoo said, softly bumping Dongsik’s head with his shoulder, “but it was what you needed, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. I’m actually only being selfish right now. Sorry.”

“Is this all? You should at least demand you get the car if you’re going to be selfish.”

“I don’t want your car.”

But he wanted this. And yet he had stopped Inwoo from kissing him earlier. It didn’t exactly make sense to Inwoo, but if Dongsik was trying to protect himself from getting more hurt, could Inwoo stay mad at him for that when he had wanted Dongsik to do precisely that? He shifted his shoulder again, but this time to make Dongsik more comfortable.

“Shouldn’t you take the painkillers the doctor prescribed you?” he asked.

“I don’t need them yet. It was just the shivering out in the cold air that made my shoulder hurt.”

Inwoo reached for the blanket on the backrest of the sofa, but as he did so, Dongsik caught hold of his wrist, turning it sideways.

“Did I do that?” His fingers brushed over the faint red marks on the skin.

Inwoo shook his wrist free.

“Why are you asking when you seem to know?”

“I’d forgotten about it. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“Stop saying such obvious things,” Inwoo said, pulling the blanket over Dongsik’s shoulders. “You were bleeding from the head. Of course you didn’t know what you were doing.”

“Still,” Dongsik said, settling down more comfortably again, “I’d expect you to be more upset if someone dares to scratch you.”

Inwoo paused to think about that. Anyone else would get their fingers cut off, that was certain. Was he really doing things that were not like him, as his father had said?

“Never mind that,” he said, “but you owe me an explanation for something else.”

“What’s that?”

“For that extremely outrageous thing you did in my office before running off.”

Dongsik burrowed his face into Inwoo’s shoulder, groaning softly.

“Did you think I’d forget about it if you go and get yourself hurt?” Inwoo asked.

“Didn’t you say you like it when I go after something by my own rules?” Dongsik murmured against his shoulder.

“I see.” Inwoo smiled at the ceiling. “So that’s what you were doing.” If only that damned phone call hadn’t interrupted. Just for that, he should consider getting the representative of the international company fired.

“I haven’t even thanked you yet,” Dongsik said, cuddling closer to him. “For coming there. And for not letting me bleed to death.”

Inwoo allowed his hand to finally end up in Dongsik’s hair, where it wanted to go.

“Don’t thank me. I didn’t do it for your sake.”

Dongsik lifted his head.

“Then why?” he asked, sounding half irritated, half skeptical.

Inwoo pressed his head back against his shoulder.

“I was only being selfish.”

He turned slightly sideways, pulling Dongsik closer. After all, the day really was cold, and he was warm. He closed his eyes, resting his cheek against Dongsik’s head.

Strange as it was, maybe this was what he needed. At the very least, this felt good, when everything else felt like nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe it was some cosmic retribution for writing Dongsik getting hurt, but I also injured my shoulder in September. It's been fun!


	17. Chapter 17

Inwoo wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep, or what had woken him up. It was already dark outside, so they must have been sleeping for at least a few hours. He stretched his neck, trying not to disturb Dongsik.

What was it about sleeping Dongsik that kept putting him to sleep, too? He rested his head back against Dongsik’s. Was it because when he was sleeping next to him, he could at least be sure Dongsik wasn’t somewhere causing trouble? Or getting in trouble.

The doorbell rang. That had to be what had woken Inwoo up. He considered ignoring it, but if whoever was at the door hadn’t given up after one unanswered attempt, who knew how long they would keep trying.

He nudged Dongsik’s head with his own.

“Hey.”

Dongsik lifted his head slightly.

“Nnnh?”

“Someone’s at the door.”

Dongsik put his head back where it had been and was quiet for long enough that Inwoo thought he had gone back to sleep.

“It must be dad,” Dongsik mumbled when the doorbell rang again. “He said he’d bring over food.”

The sound of the doorbell was replaced by that of someone dialing the door code.

“He’s opening the door,” Inwoo said.

Dongsik nodded against his shoulder.

“Mmm.”

“Is it fine to be so calm about that?”

Dongsik turned his head and finally started to be awake enough to understand the situation. He tried to get up, but in his hurry forgot about the blanket that was wrapped around his shoulders. After a brief struggle with it, he ended up sitting on the floor.

Inwoo sat up. Dongsik’s father was already walking in. There was no escaping the fact that this was going to take at least some explaining.

With gritted teeth, Dongsik managed to free himself of the blanket. Inwoo got up to help him up to his feet. Dongsik didn’t look too happy about that, but it was what nice Inwoo would do. Perhaps it was also what real Inwoo would have done if no one else was around. It was clear Dongsik’s injuries were hurting.

Dongsik’s father stopped, looking from his son to Inwoo and to the blanket Dongsik dropped down to the sofa.

“You… just what…”

Dongsik’s sister walked in after him, carrying in her arms a paper bag with the family restaurant’s logo.

“I thought that was the director’s car on the street,” she said, glancing at the two of them apologetically. “I should have said we can’t just barge in.”

Dongsik’s father was quiet for a second and then turned to look at her.

“Is this something everyone knows except me?”

“Well, not _exactly_ …” She turned slowly to place the bag down on the kitchen table. 

“What are you saying? We were only…” Dongsik waved his hand toward the sofa, and then raised his other hand to his temple, lowering his head. “… sleeping.”

His father turned back to him.

“And why would you be sleeping there like that?”

“No, I mean…” Dongsik mumbled, his hand still pressed to his temple.

Inwoo placed his hands on Dongsik’s shoulders and gently but firmly sat him down on the sofa.

“Take your painkillers.”

For a moment everyone was quiet. Dongsik looked up at him with a slightly panicked what-are-you-doing look on his face.

“Where are they?” Inwoo asked. Whatever trouble this would get them in, he would sort that out after Dongsik wasn’t so obviously in pain.

Dongsik glanced at his father, and then turned his eyes downward, inclining his head to his back right.

“On the desk, over there.”

“Right,” Dongsik’s father said, turning to look away, “the most important thing right now is that you just got home from the hospital.”

“I’ll get you a glass of water,” Dongsik’s sister said.

Inwoo fetched the painkillers from the desk and sat down on the sofa to count the pills into Dongsik’s open palm.

Dongsik’s father cleared his throat.

“I, uh… I know when my son got hurt, you were there to help him. So I should at least thank you for that.”

“That’s not even all of it,” Dongsik’s sister said briskly, bringing the glass of water over to Dongsik. “The director was watching over him that whole night in the hospital. And you saw the room there. Would even our own family take better care of Dongsik?”

Dongsik stared at her with a slight frown on his face. Sighing inwardly, Inwoo pushed the hand holding the pills toward Dongsik to remind him to take them. So much for leaving room for alternate interpretations.

“I… see,” Dongsik’s father said. “Well, we don’t have much to offer in return, but you’re welcome to come and have a meal at the restaurant any time.”

Satisfied that Dongsik had swallowed down his pills, Inwoo got up to face him.

“Thank you,” he said, “but the only thing I need in return is for Dongsik to be fine.” This was playing it a bit beyond the nice Inwoo way, but it seemed to be working to keep the situation calm. Besides, it was actually true.

“Yes, well… when you have time, come over for dinner, anyway.”

“Yes. I will do that.” Inwoo gave Dongsik’s father a respectful bow, and from the way Dongsik was gripping the glass in his hand, Inwoo suspected he was resisting an urge to give him a kick.

“You get some rest and get better,” Dongsik’s father said to Dongsik, then glanced at his sister. “What are you still standing there for? Since he has company, we should go.” He walked to the door without looking back.

“Don’t worry,” Dongsik’s sister whispered, hurrying after him. “I’ll talk to him.”

Dongsik stared at the door for a moment after they had left.

“What does my sister think she knows?”

Inwoo backed a few steps away from him.

“That was definitely Chilsung’s fault, not mine.”

Dongsik turned slowly to glare at him.

“And you couldn’t tone down that act just a bit?”

“Your father really likes me, and after what your sister said, I have a reputation to keep.”

“Good for you.” Dongsik got up from the sofa and walked over to the kitchen table. “I’m the one who will have to explain they got the wrong idea. At this rate, they’ll be disappointed.”

“If I suddenly disappear now, it will make me look bad, too,” Inwoo said, walking after him. “If you want, I can keep this up for a few days.” 

Dongsik shot him another glare and pulled the bag closer so forcefully it almost toppled over the edge.

“Days? Is that how little you think of my dad? After that ‘I only need Dongsik to be fine’, you should be thinking weeks.”

“Look how quick you are to raise the stakes.” Inwoo stopped beside him, leaning on the table. “Maybe this was what you were plotting all along when you brought me here.”

Dongsik sighed, staring blankly at the food container he had just taken out of the bag. 

“I just wanted you to calm down. How would I have known we’d fall asleep?” Just like that, the small spark of fighting spirit faded. He turned slightly away from Inwoo and continued unpacking the contents of the bag.

Inwoo watched him in silence. He would rather have taken the kicking than this. Maybe it would be best to leave. The circumstances made it seem like a simple choice. To put a clean end to things before they got even more entangled. Except… that hadn’t worked the last time, either, had it?

He sat down on the edge of the table. 

“You said you won’t make things difficult.”

Dongsik turned to look at him.

“Do you seriously think I—”

“Why? Don’t you know what your friends say about you? You don’t back out no matter how scared you are, you don’t stop once you decide to fight. But you’re giving up so easily on this.”

“I’m the one who got you in so much trouble,” Dongsik said, turning back to the food. “What right do I have to do anything?”

“Will that attitude fix anything? Do you think if the world sees you hanging your head like that it will say ‘oh, Dongsik must really be sorry, so let’s make everything right’? That won’t happen. No one will care.”

“I know that! But what am I supposed to do?”

“Make things difficult,” Inwoo said. “Make them impossible! That’s your natural talent, so you might as well go all out on that.”

Dongsik slammed a food container down on the table.

“Fine! Don’t even think about leaving like this! What, a few days? After what I’ve had to put up from you, I think I deserve at least a few months!”

Dongsik took a deep breath. Inwoo closed his eyes. He had gone to poke the hornet’s nest on purpose, so he couldn’t complain if he got stung now.

“Your entire family is the same,” Dongsik said. “You all think you can walk over people any way you like. I’m sick to death of it. And you… You won’t tell me anything. Is it so fun to keep me confused? I get that you couldn’t come back to the hospital, but was it impossible to get just one word, so I would at least know what’s going on?”

He paused to breathe.

“Was that all you wanted to say?” Inwoo asked.

“No!” Dongsik snapped. “Why didn’t you let me say what I wanted to your father? The way he talks to you makes me so mad.”

Inwoo nodded.

“Right. I should have let you yell at him. What can he really do to you when I’m there?”

“Was that why you told me to be quiet?” Dongsik asked, his tone growing calmer. “I thought you were angry at me.”

Inwoo opened his eyes, frowning at him.

“Is that all it takes for you to calm down again? You were doing so well building up the rage.”

Dongsik leaned his palms on the table, hanging his head between his arms.

“What do you want from me? I’m tired and my head hurts. Don’t you get that?”

“Yes, I know,” Inwoo said. “Not telling you anything and keeping you confused, those are things I can change. But just like right now, I can completely ignore that you’re in pain when I think something else is more important. That’s something I can’t change. Can you handle that? You will still need to stand up against me on your own sometimes.”

Dongsik raised his head slowly. Inwoo looked away, crossing his arms.

“If you want to give up, it’s best to do it now,” Inwoo said. “There are a lot of reasons to. But ignore what my father said and stop accepting defeat because you think you deserve it. This is something for you to decide.”

Dongsik straightened up, removing his hands from the table. Inwoo kept looking away. He tried to count the seconds, but afterward, he couldn’t say if it was three or thirty until Dongsik replied.

“I’m not giving up.”

“Are you sure?”

This time it wasn’t even half a second.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Okay.”

“That’s all?” Dongsik reached for the nearest food container, erratically picking at the edges of the lid. “Just… ‘okay’?”

Inwoo got up to his feet. He took a step closer to Dongsik, who turned to face him, chewing on his lower lip.

“To answer your question about what I want from you…” Inwoo rested his wrists on Dongsik’s shoulders, and tilted his head slightly, looking into his eyes. “I want you.”

Dongsik opened his mouth halfway, then after staying like that for a second, he closed his eyes and lowered his head, exhaling slowly. Inwoo pulled him into his arms.

“I won’t give you up, either.” Inwoo buried his face into Dongsik’s hair. _Won’t… or can’t?_ Whether it was still a choice or not, this time he would hold on.

“Couldn’t you just tell me that right away?” Dongsik leaned against his shoulder, slowly wrapping his arms around him. “Why do you make everything so complicated?”

Inwoo drew back a little, causing Dongsik to raise his head. He lifted his hand to Dongsik’s cheek, and the puzzlement in his eyes turned to softness and warmth.

“This is why,” Inwoo said. “See how quickly you melt? Can you make any rational decisions like this?”

Dongsik furrowed his brow, and Inwoo leaned his forehead against his, closing his eyes.

“I won’t make things difficult for you on purpose again.”

“You’d better not,” Dongsik said sullenly.

Inwoo ran his thumb down Dongsik’s cheek and felt him turn his face upward. Inwoo turned his own head slightly to the side, sliding his hand behind Dongsik’s neck, pulling him closer.

And then the doorbell rang again.

Inwoo turned his head away, opening his eyes.

“Seriously?”

Dongsik sighed. After another impatient ringing of the doorbell, someone banged on the door.

“That’s Chilsung. Wait a moment, I’ll tell him to go away.”

Reluctantly, Inwoo let him go. Was Dongsik’s apartment always such a popular location?

Dongsik had barely managed to open the door before Chilsung barged in, his hair tousled and clutching his phone in his hand.

“What’s going on? I heard…” He spotted Inwoo and glared at him. “I heard that this jerk’s family caused trouble again.” He pointed at Inwoo with the phone.

“That was hours ago,” Inwoo said. “What have you been doing?”

“Sleeping! It’s not like you don’t know I stayed awake at the hospital every night.” Chilsung leaned on the door frame, running his hand through his hair. “I had the boys keeping an eye on things, but they said it was hyungnim who told them to stay out of it.”

“Everything is fine,” Dongsik said. “Go home.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” Dongsik ushered him back out of the door. “Go get more sleep. A lot of it. _Please._ ” He closed the door and turned back to Inwoo.

“You told the people who were there for your protection to just stand aside?” Inwoo asked, scowling.

“You were in touch with Chilsung this whole time, but couldn’t have him tell me anything?”

They paused to look at one another.

“Never mind,” Dongsik said. “We’re not fighting right now.”

Inwoo nodded.

“Get your coat, we’re going to my place.”

“What? But… the food…” Dongsik waved his hand toward the table.

“I’ll buy you whatever you want to eat,” Inwoo said. “There’s a decent restaurant along the way.”

Dongsik gave him a disapproving glare.

“My dad made all that and even brought it all the way here. Respect his efforts a little.”

“Fine. We’ll take the food along.” Inwoo turned to pile the food back into the bag. “Bring your painkillers, too.” He picked up his coat along with the bag of food and waited for Dongsik at the door.

“But is it fine for me to come there?” Dongsik asked, stuffing the pack of painkillers into the pocket of his coat.

“Do you think my father keeps that close eye on things?” Inwoo paused to think. “If he finds out about it, I’ll tell him I brought you there to decide what I’m going to do to you.”

***

“Nice,” Dongsik said, looking around Inwoo’s apartment. “It’s as gloomy as you are.”

“The word you’re looking for is ‘refined’.” Carrying the bag of food in one arm, Inwoo wrapped the other one around Dongsik’s shoulders and walked him toward the kitchen. “Weren’t you hungry?”

“It’s all stylish and everything,” Dongsik said, still focused on looking around, “but why is it so black and gray? Do you hate colors or something?”

Inwoo thought briefly about his more colorful secret room. But even if Dongsik had so far taken everything in a stride, maybe it was better to take some things slowly. And for all Inwoo knew, Dongsik might turn out to be so fascinated by his knife collection he would spend the rest of the evening there.

“Where are the plates? Over here?” Dongsik went to open the doors of the cupboards without waiting for a reply.

Inwoo set the bag down on the table. Ironically, the food choice couldn’t have been more perfect. It was essentially the same thing they had had at Dongsik’s father’s restaurant, and today was increasingly starting to look like a do-over of that night. Right down to the meddling sister.

“Are these brand new?” Dongsik walked over to the table carrying two plates. “They don’t look like they’ve been used at all.” He turned one plate around in his hand so that light reflected off the surface.

“They probably haven’t been. How many would I use by myself?” Inwoo said. “Why are you so full of questions?”

“Can’t I be curious?” Dongsik set the plates down. “Don’t you ever have people over to eat?”

“If someone is important enough to get invited over, they’re important enough to get offered a drink. But having them stay over for dinner wouldn’t gain me anything that’s worth suffering their presence all that time.” Smiling slightly, Inwoo turned Dongsik towards the nearest chair and leaned unnecessarily close to him as he guided him to sit down. “So, no. No one gets invited over to eat. Ever.”

He left Dongsik to think about his words and went to fetch the chopsticks.

“You won’t get offered a drink, but that’s because of the painkillers,” he said, returning to the table.

“I know.”

For a while, Dongsik settled down to eat without talking much. Inwoo wondered if he was nervous or just tired. Maybe both. And there was still some tension left between them that perhaps could have been broken by the kiss that Chilsung had interrupted. Though regardless of that, it would have been strange if it wasn’t a little awkward to adjust to spending time like this. Just about everything they had done together so far had included some kind of danger or fighting. And they would get back to that kiss later.

But by the time Inwoo had finished eating, Dongsik had grown too quiet, listlessly shifting the food around on his plate.

“What’s wrong?” Inwoo asked.

“You told me to ignore what your father said, but it’s not something you can ignore, right?”

“Of course not.”

“What are you going to do?” Dongsik asked. “Can you tell me this time, even if you think I can’t help?”

Inwoo leaned back in his chair.

“There are only two things that work when my father is in that kind of mood. Either he gets what he wants or he becomes convinced he’s getting what he wants. It must be the latter, of course, but I haven’t decided how to do that, yet.”

Dongsik nodded.

“Don’t worry about your job,” Inwoo said. “You’re injured anyway, so you can take as many days to rest at home as I say you should. I’ll find a way to make it impossible to remove you from the company.”

Dongsik continued poking at his food for a moment, then he looked up with a determined expression on his face.

“No. I’ll resign.”

Inwoo frowned.

“You said you’re not giving up.”

“Those are two different things. My job in the company has nothing to do with… this… thing.”

Inwoo raised his eyebrows in amusement, but he had to admit he couldn’t say exactly what to call this thing, either.

“I told you not to try to fix everything on your own,” Dongsik said. “This is something I can do to make things easier for you. And I’m sorry for saying this since it’s your precious company, but I really don’t love that job so much I want to fight tooth and nail for it.”

“Well, it would mean my family doesn’t have so much power over you, which is only a good thing,” Inwoo said. It looked like Dongsik was done eating, so Inwoo got up and started to clear the table. “What kind of job you want? There are a lot of options I can make happen.”

“Forget it. I’ll sort that out on my own,” Dongsik said, getting up as well.

“Fine, I guess you have your pride, too.” Inwoo stopped in front of Dongsik. “But you should at least find something that pays well. If I get kicked out because of you, I’ll make you take care of me. And as you can see, I have a very expensive taste.”

Dongsik nodded.

“If that happens, I’ll sell your car first.”

“I knew it.” Inwoo took a step closer. “Now that you got your foot in the door, your true colors come out.”

Dongsik smiled and was about to pick up his plate when Inwoo interrupted him. With his hands on Dongsik’s shoulders, Inwoo turned him away from the table.

“Go sit down. Your head hurts and you’re tired, I didn’t forget.”

“My head feels fine now,” Dongsik said. “That’s what the painkillers are for.”

“That’s good.” Inwoo turned him around and walked him to the sofa. “The doctor’s orders are that you should take things easy for a while.”

Dongsik sighed but sat down on the sofa without arguing. Inwoo returned to the table. Staring darkly ahead, he took the plates to the sink. Letting his father pressure Dongsik out of the company tasted irritatingly like admitting defeat. But Dongsik had spent enough time being a pawn in a fight that had nothing to do with him. After he was safely out of the reach of his family, one way or another Inwoo would make them pay for the fact that things had come to this.

“After my shoulder has healed, should I cook for you?” Dongsik asked from the sofa. “I’m not as good as my dad, but I’m still pretty good.”

“Why would you do that? Seoul is full of restaurants.” Inwoo set his phone face down on the kitchen counter. There would be no more interruptions tonight.

Dongsik was quiet for a moment.

“It can’t be that you don’t know even the basics about this stuff, right?”

“It’s not that I don’t know, I just don’t see the point,” Inwoo said, bringing Dongsik a bottle of water from the fridge. “Do you think you still need to win me over? Or that you owe it to me to do things like that? There’s no end to people around me who will do anything I say, hoping to get something out of it. I don’t need you to be one of them.” He went to pour himself a glass of wine.

“It’s not about trying to win you over, it’s…” Dongsik paused to look at the water bottle in his hand. “You do things like this all the time, too. Is this because you’re trying to win me over or because you owe me something?”

“No.” Inwoo dimmed the lights on the way to the sofa and sat down next to Dongsik.

“Then why? It’s not like you’re the type to just be nice. This is a bit…”

“Not like me?” Inwoo asked.

“It’s unexpected,” Dongsik said. “Do you think you’re not acting like yourself?”

Inwoo swirled the wine around in the glass.

“No. I thought about that earlier at your place while you were using me as a pillow. It’s actually very simple.” He took a sip of the wine. “I do anything to give the company what the company needs, regardless of how much work it is, and what I have to sacrifice for it. That’s because, no matter what, the company mine. Since it’s mine, I need to take good care of it and can’t let anything bad happen to it. When it comes to you, it’s exactly the same thing.”

“I’m… what?” Dongsik tried to not choke on his water. “ _Yours?_ ”

“Yes.” Inwoo smiled and turned to look at him. “You don’t like that?”

“I’m not… saying that, necessarily,” Dongsik said, turning to look away, “but… Hold on. When did you decide that? And on your own? Shouldn’t you ask me first?”

“If you were someone I can bend to my will, I wouldn’t have any interest in you.” Inwoo took another sip of his wine. “That doesn’t change the fact you’re mine. But it’s up to you what you’ll do about it.”

As for when… when had it been, exactly? It hadn’t been so much a decision as it had simply become obvious.

“Aren’t you rushing things a little?” Dongsik said. “This is on the level of things people might say after a few months, at least.”

“That’s for people who can’t make up their minds. I already know what I want.”

Dongsik put his water bottle down on the coffee table and slumped against the backrest of the sofa.

“There’s really no middle ground with you. First it’s impossible to get you to admit to anything, and now…”

“So which do you want?” Inwoo asked. “Do you want me to keep you confused, or tell things as they are?”

“Right.” Dongsik nodded. “Tell me. I’ll try not to lose my head.”

Inwoo slipped his arm behind Dongsik’s neck and guided his head to lean against his shoulder.

“You can lose your head. I’ll take good care of it.”

Dongsik laughed against his shoulder.

“You’re too much, seriously.”

Inwoo reached out to place the wineglass on the table. He leaned back again and turned toward Dongsik, shifting his position so that Dongsik’s head was resting on his arm.

“But you can’t really talk about rushing things,” Inwoo said. “Or do you not remember running away from the ER and coming to the police station very determined to take me home with you?”

“That was…” Dongsik turned slowly to look away.

“Yes?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Are you denying everything now?” Inwoo took Dongsik’s chin between his thumb and index finger and turned his face back toward him. “Don’t think I’ll chase after you if you try to play hard to get.”

Dongsik brushed his hand away, but while his fingers were still lightly wrapped around his wrist, he leaned in to kiss Inwoo softly. For a second, Inwoo was caught off guard. This was what he had been aiming for, but he had expected it to take more work.

 _Don’t get too hasty_ , Inwoo told himself, returning the kiss just as gently. After all the fighting and interruptions, for now, this was just the right mood. And this was… unexpectedly nice. Inwoo wouldn’t have thought he could really appreciate something like this, something so slow and mellow it was almost unbearable. So what was it about this that made it so good?

With his hand behind Dongsik’s back, Inwoo pulled him slightly closer. Dongsik crossed his arms around Inwoo’s neck. Considering how naturally cuddly Dongsik seemed to be, to him this tenderness had to be just a normal thing. Then again, it wasn’t as though he didn’t know how to bite when something riled him up. _Or someone…_

That was it. The reason this was so strange, and so sweet. Because all things considered, what reason did Dongsik have to be so gentle with him? He had insisted it wasn’t gratitude. This obviously wasn’t only lust, either.

Inwoo broke the kiss, and Dongsik settled down with his hands resting on Inwoo’s shoulder, leaning his chin on the other.

Inwoo stayed still, focused on the warmth of Dongsik around him. Earlier, when he had pushed Dongsik a little too hard, it was true that he had needed Dongsik to think clearly about what he was getting into so that he wouldn’t bolt at the first new obstacle. But there had been another reason, too. A desire to know if, no matter what, Dongsik was willing to fight for him. When had he grown so greedy for something like that?

Dongsik lifted his chin from Inwoo's shoulder, seeming to notice how serious he was all of a sudden.

“What is it?”

“You,” Inwoo said quietly. “You’re too much.”

Dongsik opened his mouth to say something, but since his lips were so conveniently right there, Inwoo kissed him again. Talking could come later. Same for thinking.

He had intended to maintain the gentle mood, but somehow from the start, the kiss turned more intense. Dongsik didn’t seem to mind, judging from the way he kept leaning closer. He returned the kiss almost inquisitively, as if he was still asking whatever he had intended to ask before Inwoo had interrupted. Smiling against his mouth, Inwoo wrapped both of his arms around him. How would he answer without knowing what the question was?

 _Maybe_ …

He brushed the tip of his tongue lightly over Dongsik’s lips. Dongsik responded with a soft gasp and paused to breathe for a second. Inwoo waited, Dongsik’s breath hot against his mouth.

Then Dongsik kissed him, hungrily, and that answered Inwoo’s question about how he really felt about rushing things. And what did it matter if there was rushing? They had some catching up to do, of all the time they could have been doing this but hadn’t.

Inwoo lost track of everything other than the intensity of the kiss. The intensity of Dongsik hunting after something he wanted. The only sign that time was still passing was that eventually they were both too breathless to go on. When they paused for air, Inwoo noticed the way Dongsik’s leg had somehow ended up over his own, his hand was in Inwoo’s hair, and something needed to be done about the fact that they were in danger of falling over together in a very awkward way.

Digging his nails into his own palm, Inwoo resisted the urge to push Dongsik down on the sofa. The way things were going, this would not count as taking things easy. He knew it was terrible to think this was the worst part about Dongsik’s injuries, but he couldn’t help thinking that, anyway.

Instead of down, Inwoo pulled Dongsik upward to get his balance back, pushing aside the errant thought that pulling Dongsik _further_ on top of him might also get interesting. He needed to cool things down while he still had some self-control left.

To avoid ruining the mood by ending things too abruptly, with his hand softly behind Dongsik’s neck, he kissed him again lightly. It was almost painful to back away again, even only just enough to make breathing a little easier. How the hell had he walked away from this the last time?

“Which do you think this is?” he asked quietly. “Real or fake?”

Dongsik gave him a quizzical look, but then a hint of a slightly peeved smile appeared on his lips.

“Real.”

Inwoo pulled him tighter into his arms and rested his forehead on Dongsik’s shoulder.

“It was real the first time, too,” Dongsik said.

Inwoo nodded against his shoulder.

“Yes.”

“You know that was still a really mean thing to do, right?”

“Yes.”

Dongsik made himself more comfortable, resting his hands at the base of Inwoo’s neck.

“To be honest, I needed time to think, too,” he said. “If you hadn’t run away then, I might have done that myself.”

Running away was definitely not what Inwoo had done, but he wasn’t going to ruin the moment by starting to argue about that.

“Think about what?” he asked instead.

“Why I didn’t hate it when you kissed me.”

“Didn’t hate it?” Inwoo lifted his head to look at him in the eyes. “That’s a bit of an understatement. It took you about a tenth of a second to be so into it that—”

Dongsik turned his face away.

“Yes, right, whatever. Shut up.”

Grinning, Inwoo rested his head back down on his shoulder.

“So? Did you figure it out? Why you… didn’t hate it?”

“No,” Dongsik said. “It doesn’t really make sense.”

“That doesn’t sound like a very nice thing to say.”

“It’s not like back then you’d done anything other than be mean and try to use me for your own selfish agenda.”

Inwoo had to admit that was true. More or less. At the very least, he hadn’t been fully aware he had wanted something else. He closed his eyes for a moment, running his hand slowly down Dongsik’s back. Though this, too, was ultimately another selfish agenda. Did it count as using him? He wanted to keep Dongsik safe and happy so he could have this… warmth.

“While I was in the hospital, I thought about it more,” Dongsik said. “I think it’s that… it was kind of refreshing. With you, I didn’t have to pretend I was fine, and nothing was wrong. You already knew everything. It was like taking a break from having to act like I thought I was supposed to. If I was angry, I could just be angry.”

Inwoo lifted his head slightly.

“And something other than angry?” he asked, his lips brushing against Dongsik’s neck.

“Right,” Dongsik said breathlessly.

Inwoo sat up, putting a bit of distance between the two of them. As fun as it was to tease Dongsik, he wasn’t making things any easier on himself, either. Dongsik let go of him with apparent reluctance and set his hands down on his lap.

“There was something else you were supposed to think about while you were in the hospital,” Inwoo said. “Your plan to make me not angry.”

“Oh, that?” Dongsik nodded. “I decided that the next time you tell me to do something, or to not do something, and I know it’s something that will affect you, and it’s not something that goes against my conscience, I will do as you say. And I did, earlier with your father when you told me to be quiet.”

Inwoo frowned. There were too many ‘ands’ to keep track of if he should be pleased to hear this litany or not.

“What’s with all these conditions? And that’s all?”

Dongsik tilted his head.

“I don’t think you were even all that angry.”

“Are you really going to be like this? You think you can get away with anything by being cute?”

Dongsik smiled, biting his lip, and leaned sideways against the backrest of the sofa.

“Then what do you want?”

“Do you even know what you did wrong?” Inwoo asked.

“You told me to not be reckless, but I still went and acted recklessly.”

“Maybe you understand better if I put it in another way.” Inwoo reached out to brush Dongsik’s hair out of the way, running his fingers softly over the stitches on his temple. “Stop acting like it doesn’t matter if you get hurt. That’s what I want.”

Dongsik turned his eyes down, his expression growing more serious.

“There’s something Shim Bokyung said to me that night,” Inwoo said, leaving his hand to rest gently on Dongsik’s shoulder, “that you would learn to be more cautious if you understand that when you get hurt, you’re not the only one getting hurt. So remember that. If someone hurts you, I will make them hurt ten times worse.”

Dongsik furrowed his brow and then looked up.

“I think what Bokyung meant was—”

“Do you think I care what she meant? I’m saying it how it is. You said I can’t hurt anyone without your permission, so it’s now your responsibility to care about your own safety more, so I won’t have to do that.”

For a moment Dongsik stayed still, looking at him in the eyes. Then slowly he leaned closer and wrapped his arms around Inwoo’s neck, hugging him so tightly Inwoo almost couldn’t breathe.

“What are you now? A koala?” Inwoo asked, his voice strained.

“How am I supposed to react if you say something like that?” Dongsik loosened his grip a little, but still stayed snuggly leaning against him. Inwoo figured he would just have to accept that Dongsik would want to stay glued to him like this for a while.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” Inwoo asked. At least they needed something to do, otherwise they would be all over each other again in about five seconds.

Judging by what he had seen of Dongsik’s apartment, it wasn’t difficult to guess his taste in movies. About twenty minutes in, Inwoo couldn’t help pointing out how stupid the killer in the movie was for leaving behind such obvious evidence. They spent the rest of the movie arguing if it would have been possible for the killer to get away with it if he had planned things better.

At some point, they had ended up lying down, with Dongsik cuddled up against Inwoo much the same way he had been before falling asleep in his apartment earlier. This time sleep wasn’t what was on Inwoo’s mind after things quieted down. No matter how innocent this was in theory, he couldn’t help being distracted by the warmth of Dongsik’s body against his own. Dongsik was silent, breathing evenly, and the only thing that told Inwoo he wasn’t asleep was the way his fingers were slowly tracing the line of Inwoo’s collarbone.

Inwoo nudged his cheek gently.

“Are you tired?”

Dongsik nodded.

“Get up, I’ll take you home,” Inwoo said.

Dongsik cuddled closer to him.

“Can’t I stay and sleep here?”

Inwoo stared up at the ceiling. Sleep? Here? How would they manage that? Could he make Dongsik sleep on the sofa? That was probably out of the question.

“I’m sorry.” Dongsik yawned. “I’m sleep-talking already. I know it’s a bad idea.”

He started to get up, but Inwoo pulled him back down.

“Stay.”

“Really?” Dongsik asked.

“Really.” It wasn’t like Inwoo would sleep any easier away from him, either. Things were so perfectly peaceful now, why would he let this end any sooner than it had to?

“But behave yourself,” he said. “Don’t tempt me to forget you’re injured. It would be difficult to explain if I have to take you back to the hospital to get your stitches fixed.”

Dongsik laughed, covering his face with his hands, and rolled away from Inwoo. 

“Don’t go so far,” Inwoo said, turning to his side and cuddling against Dongsik in turn. “It’s a little cold in here.”


	18. Chapter 18

Inwoo sat on the edge of his bed, watching Dongsik, who slept like he had no care in the world. He brushed a lock of the curly mess that was Dongsik’s hair away from his eyes. Even when he was doing almost nothing, unusual things kept happening around Dongsik. No one was invited to stay for dinner. No one definitely stayed to sleep in Inwoo’s bed. But he could get used to this.

Though not until Dongsik was fine enough to not _only_ sleep. This was a special kind of torture.

Inwoo leaned down so that his hair, wet after a shower, brushed against Dongsik’s face. The cold awakening made Dongsik squirm. He opened his eyes halfway, and with a disgruntled groan tried to pull the pillow over his face. Inwoo pulled the pillow cruelly away, then kissed his cheek softly. When Dongsik let go of the pillow, Inwoo tossed it to the other side of the bed.

“Get up.” Inwoo stood up and smirked at the disappointment on Dongsik’s face. “I have to go to the office.”

Dongsik sat up slowly, hanging his head.

“I got you a toothbrush from the convenience store while I was out running,” Inwoo said. “It’s by the sink in the bathroom.”

“Running?” Dongsik lifted his head and eyed him grudgingly. “Are you always this full of energy in the morning?” He reached for the painkillers Inwoo had brought to the bedside table for him.

Inwoo turned his back to him.

“You think I even got any sleep?”

“What?”

“Do you want coffee?” Inwoo asked, walking away.

“Yes,” Dongsik replied with a yawn.

Inwoo was sipping his coffee by the kitchen counter and checking through the morning news on his tablet when Dongsik walked into the kitchen. Dongsik had managed to tame his hair a little, but he still didn’t appear to be happy about being awake. Inwoo poured him a cup of coffee.

“This is too weird,” Dongsik said, staring at the coffee. “I’m usually the one to make coffee for everyone. And you’re the managing director. Well, won’t be… No, I won’t be… Anyway, it’s weird.”

“Give it back, then,” Inwoo said, trying to take the cup away.

“No.” Dongsik quickly moved the cup out of his reach and cradled it in his hands. “Thank you.”

“Find something to eat if you want,” Inwoo said. “I’ll give you ten minutes.”

“Ten?” Dongsik gave him a sideways glance and took a sip from his cup. “I knew it, you actually are grumpy in the mornings, this classy CEO thing is just an act.”

“You’re the grumpy one.” Inwoo set his tablet aside. He would have to come up with a new morning routine. One that flawlessly incorporated a grumpy Dongsik, who evidently took some time to wake up. To start with, he needed something to offset the bad mood.

Inwoo took the cup of coffee from Dongsik’s hands and muffled his protest by pulling him into a hug. For a moment, everything seemed to quiet down. Dongsik leaned against him, the warmth and weight of his hands softly pressing against Inwoo’s back. To add yet another unusual thing to the list, Inwoo found himself suddenly yearning for mornings with nothing to do.

He took a step back.

“That was one minute out of your ten.”

“Hey!”

In the end, Dongsik didn’t try to use his few minutes to eat anything. He was ready and waiting by the door before Inwoo got there.

“I can take the bus home if you’re in a hurry,” Dongsik said.

“No, you can’t.” Inwoo handed him a gift box he’d taken out of the drawer of his desk. “I’ll get the police to return your phone to you as fast as possible, but it still won’t be fast enough, so take this.”

Dongsik opened the lid of the box and stared at the brand new phone inside.

“Where did this come from? Not from the convenience store while you were running?”

“I bought it while you were in the hospital,” Inwoo said. “I was going to get Chilsung to bring it to you, but…” But the fact that Dongsik would be a distraction had been only half the reason he had hesitated. The other half had been the thought that perhaps Dongsik would have nothing to say to him.

Dongsik seemed to wait for him to finish the sentence, but when that didn’t happen, he didn’t ask.

“This is probably way too expensive,” he said, closing the box.

“I need to be able to contact you.”

“Well… that’s true.” Dongsik prodded the small bow on the lid of the gift box, a smile slowly spreading on his face. “The box is very cute.”

“The clerk in the store did that,” Inwoo said. “Why are you happier about the box than the phone?”

Dongsik smiled even wider.

“Doesn’t it say you were thinking of me?”

“Why is it the box that says that?” Shaking his head, Inwoo turned away to put on his coat. When he turned back, Dongsik, still smiling with the gift box in his hand, stepped closer, and leaned in to kiss him on the lips. He tasted like coffee. It was a given that coffee made by Inwoo was superior to anyone else’s, but like this, it was even better.

Dongsik stepped back, and Inwoo led him out of the door before the idea of not going anywhere at all took a too firm hold of his mind.

Not forgetting that Dongsik hadn’t gotten to eat any breakfast, Inwoo stopped the car in front of a bakery. He left Dongsik to wait in the car and returned a moment later with a bag full of bread.

Dongsik watched in amusement as Inwoo pushed the bag into his arms.

“This is too much.”

“Go to the park to feed birds or something.”

Inwoo dropped Dongsik off by his building and watched while he walked up to the front door with the gift box in one hand and the other arm around the bag of bread. Realizing he’d have a hard time getting in with his hands full, Inwoo considered going after him. But someone came out of the building, helpfully keeping the door open for Dongsik. And unhelpfully ruining Inwoo’s chance of an excuse to walk Dongsik to his door.

Inwoo turned the car around. They had been together the whole time since the hunting cabin the previous day. By all logic, he should be more than ready to take a break from Dongsik’s company rather than want more of it.

In its simplicity, this had perhaps been the most unusual morning in his life so far.

***

Around lunchtime the following day, Dongsik came to the office to hand in his resignation letter. He was talking to his teammates in the break room when Inwoo walked past. From the sound of it, they had already heard about his plan to resign and were now begging for him to join them for lunch.

Excusing himself from their company, Dongsik followed Inwoo into his office and closed the door behind him. Before he got a chance to say even a word, Inwoo snatched the resignation letter from his hands, walked over to his desk, and tossed the letter down on it.

“Aren’t you going to let me do this properly?” Dongsik asked.

“No.” Inwoo turned to face him. “I’ll set you to be on sick leave for the rest of the time you’re still an employee, so you won’t have to come back to the office.”

Dongsik watched him quietly for a second.

“You don’t like this.”

“If I don’t like this, will you reconsider?” Inwoo asked.

“No.” Dongsik frowned. “But why didn’t you say anything before?”

“Wasn’t the other night supposed to be a ‘no fighting’ time?”

“There’s no point in fighting about it now either.”

Before Inwoo could respond, his secretary interrupted via the intercom.

“Team Leader Gong asks if you would like to join the rest of them for lunch,” she said.

“Tell them to go on their own,” Inwoo said. “Yook Dongsik won’t be able to make it, either. There’s something we need to discuss.”

“What do we have to discuss?” Dongsik asked, when Inwoo stepped away from his desk, walked Dongsik over to the sofa, and made him sit down. “I already promised to have lunch with them.”

Inwoo seated himself beside Dongsik, far closer than was necessary. He rested his arm on the backrest of the sofa, so that his hand was almost touching Dongsik’s opposite shoulder.

“But isn’t it a bit of a shame? If you kept working here, things could get really fun in the office.”

Dongsik blinked and turned to him with questioning eyes.

“Think about it.” Inwoo leaned closer to adjust the collar of Dongsik’s shirt, letting his fingers brush against his neck in the process. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”

Dongsik held his breath for a second and then forced himself to relax.

“I’m not changing my mind.”

Inwoo drew his hand back.

“It’s only been a day and you’ve already turned this cold.”

Inwoo got up from the sofa. Dongsik followed suit and stopped him before he could walk away, moving to stand close enough to put his arms lightly around Inwoo’s waist.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Inwoo asked. “The office is a sacred space.”

“Funny how that didn’t matter a moment ago.”

“I would have made an exception for you if you weren’t so stubborn.” With his hands on Dongsik’s shoulders, Inwoo kept him from getting any closer.

“I’m being stubborn for your sake,” Dongsik said softly, settling for leaning against Inwoo’s hands, his chin just about reaching far enough to rest on Inwoo’s shoulder. “I know you think there’s nothing you can’t handle, but I want to protect and take care of you, too. Why are you so against that?”

“I hate letting Jihoon and my father win.”

“What are they winning? They don’t really gain anything. We’re just being smarter.”

 _We._ Such a small and common word, but something about it was oddly powerful now. Inwoo slid his hands over Dongsik’s shoulders, slowly pulling him into his arms. He didn’t need anyone to protect him, and it wasn’t the first time he heard someone say something ridiculous like that, so why did it feel so good this time?

“You need to get a proper farewell party,” Inwoo said. “Pick a suitable date and a restaurant you like.”

“Won’t the place where we usually have team dinners do?”

“No, it won’t. I need to manage the image of my company, too. It must be something that matches your heroic reputation. And technically it’s my father who will pay for it, so don’t worry about the cost.”

“Okay,” Dongsik said, sounding amused.

Inwoo pulled him a little closer. One thing was certain. The office would turn much more boring without Dongsik around.

“How can you promise to go out to lunch with your team and not even think of me?” Inwoo let go of him and went to get his overcoat from the coat rack by his desk. “Come on, I’ll take you to eat somewhere they won’t wander into.”

“Just the two of us?” Dongsik seemed surprised as if the thought hadn’t even occurred to him. “Can we do that?”

“Why not? It’s only a meal.” Inwoo raised an eyebrow. “Or do you think you can’t behave in public places?”

“I thought you wouldn’t want your father to hear about things like that.”

“No matter what, a lunch doesn’t matter.” Inwoo walked back to Dongsik and turned him toward the door. After taking only one step, Dongsik spun around to face him again.

“What about a dinner?” Dongsik looked hopeful. “Tomorrow?”

Inwoo nodded, smiling.

“Fine.”

Though he wasn’t sure if he was agreeing because he was certain it wouldn’t be a problem, or because he found it impossible to say no.

***

The farewell party for Dongsik took place about a week later. With less than an hour to go before the start of the party, Inwoo was still finishing up work in the office. Usually that wouldn’t have mattered, since no one dared to complain about him arriving late to an event like that. But this time there was one person who might mind, so Inwoo called him to inform him of the fact.

“That’s fine,” Dongsik said on the phone. “But aren’t you overworking? Again?”

“Something came up at the last minute,” Inwoo said. “It’s nothing much.” And that something could have waited for the next day, but Inwoo had a plan. There was no reason he should have to go home alone tonight, and if he got all the work done before that, he could create that rare morning with nothing to do. This time Dongsik could take as long to wake up as he wanted. Inwoo smiled to himself. _Maybe._

“By the way…” Dongsik paused, sounding hesitant. “Dad asked when you’re coming over for dinner.”

“Ah.” In the middle of everything else, Inwoo had forgotten about that promise.

“Well, if you’re not up for it—”

“Are you trying to challenge me?” Inwoo asked. “Fine, let’s do it tomorrow evening.”

“To…” Dongsik was quiet for a second. “Okay, fine.”

“Don’t worry,” Inwoo said softly. “I’ll convince your family it’s safe to leave you in my hands.”

“No, don’t… don’t do that,” Dongsik said, and Inwoo grinned at the annoyance in his voice. “Just act normal, that’s enough.”

“Of course I must show them I have nothing but best intentions.” Inwoo waited just long enough for Dongsik to take a deep breath before interrupting him. “I need to get back to work. I’ll come to the party as soon as I can.”

“You, seriously…” Dongsik sighed. “Right. I’ll see you then.”

Inwoo spent a second staring at the screen of his phone after ending the call. What was this silly thing? Now only hearing Dongsik’s voice was enough to make him restless.

But he would not let Dongsik become so much of a distraction it would affect his work, and so he finished everything meticulously before heading home to get changed. There was still no reason to hurry. Spending some time at the party was a necessary part of the evening, but not the one Inwoo was looking forward to. He didn’t like the thought of sharing Dongsik’s attention, even if it was technically for the sake of the company’s image.

Before leaving for the restaurant, Inwoo stopped to shift through the bottles in his wine collection. Dongsik had stopped taking the painkillers a couple of days earlier. What would he like to drink? Red? White? Or something stronger? Or would he drink so much at the party it would be a bad idea to let him drink more?

Inwoo selected one bottle of red wine and one white and then paused to look at them critically. Was he making too many plans? With Dongsik, something unexpected always happened. Something that hadn’t occurred to him to prepare for.

As if on cue, the unexpected started to happen while Inwoo was driving to the restaurant. His phone rang. He scowled at the name of Miss Jo on the screen. There had better not be more urgent work to do.

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry for not telling you sooner,” she said, “but I only found out myself just now. It seems your brother came back to Seoul earlier today.”

A chill ran up Inwoo’s spine.

“I see. You don’t need to do anything. Go home.”

Was it a coincidence? Inwoo was certain his father would not have called Jihoon back yet, so he had to be here for reasons of his own.

Inwoo dialed Dongsik’s number. For once he answered immediately.

“Yes?” Dongsik’s voice was tense.

“Jihoon is—”

“I know.”

Not a coincidence, then.

“Are you at the restaurant?” Inwoo asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t do anything crazy.”

“I’ll… try.”

Inwoo gripped the steering wheel with both hands. This night would _not_ get ruined. Or Jihoon wouldn’t live long enough to regret it. But rather than rush into signing that death warrant, the first step was to do whatever was necessary to take control of the situation. Jihoon wouldn’t crash the party without some support. Even if Dongsik was recovering as well as could be hoped, he didn’t need to get into another fight. Now or ever.

Inwoo called Chilsung. He had kept the number solely under the assumption that one day Dongsik was bound to get in trouble again. He hadn’t expected that to happen this soon.

“Go to the restaurant Dongsik is at,” Inwoo said before Chilsung got even a word in. “I’ll text you the address.”

“What for? I’m—”

“ _Now._ ”

Stopping to ask how far away Chilsung was wouldn’t get him there any faster, so Inwoo didn’t waste time on that.

After a few minutes, Inwoo pulled his car to a stop in the restaurant’s parking lot. The place Dongsik had picked was small but classy, with a comfortably modern interior in a stylish traditional exterior. The entirety of it had been reserved for the company’s use for the night. From outside, everything looked quiet, but Inwoo wanted to know what the situation was before going in.

Chilsung, who was for some reason more cleanly dressed than usual, showed up while Inwoo was walking toward the restaurant’s staff entrance. Inwoo beckoned for him to follow.

“So it’s your family again,” Chilsung said when they passed a window with an unobstructed view into the front half of the restaurant’s main dining room.

The company’s employees were standing around the tables, looking confused more than anything. Inwoo couldn’t see where Dongsik was, but Jihoon was sitting on top of a table near the window.

Lingering just outside the staff entrance were four thugs. Not Jihoon’s usual crew. At least he had been smart enough to ditch them when they had abandoned him the last time. As Inwoo and Chilsung approached, the thugs eyed them warily.

“I don’t suppose those guys would leave if you tell them to?” Inwoo asked Chilsung.

“I think those guys might want me dead. Few of my boys are not far. Should I call them?”

Inwoo shook his head.

“You’ll call them if comes to that, but I don’t want this to lead to a fight.”

“Right, hyungnim could get hurt again.”

“And so could my company’s reputation.”

“This is why I can’t approve of you,” Chilsung hissed.

They continued on to the staff entrance. Jihoon’s thugs backed out of Inwoo’s way but were watching Chilsung tensely.

“Save your personal fights to your own time,” Inwoo said, as he walked past them.

As soon as the two of them stepped in, the nervous kitchen staff flocked to Inwoo.

“What should we do? Should we call the police?”

“No,” Inwoo said. “Stay calm. Do whatever work you have in here.”

With Chilsung behind him, Inwoo stopped in the cover of the dimly lit kitchen entryway to look around the dining room. Dongsik was among his team on the opposite side of the room. He looked fine. Inwoo paused with his eyes on him. He also looked _fine_. That suit had to be new.

Some kind of argument seemed to be taking place, with Dongsik’s team taking offense at Jihoon’s behavior.

“What I’m saying is that you don’t know the truth about Yook Dongsik!” Jihoon shouted.

“We know he put a murderer behind bars,” Team Leader Gong said. “That’s the kind of upstanding citizen he is.”

The rest of the team nodded in unison. Dongsik glanced restlessly at the entrance. Unfortunately, Inwoo wasn’t ready to go to his rescue yet. This took careful consideration. Inwoo siding with Dongsik would only rile up Jihoon more, and with all the employees present it would be a delicate balance to keep things from spiraling into chaos.

Jihoon was about to say something when he was interrupted by a woman entering the restaurant. She froze on the spot at the door when everyone in the dining room turned to look at her.

“Oh?” Dongsik said.

“You!” Jihoon jumped down from the table, pointing his finger at her.

Inwoo turned his attention to the woman. The nurse. Again. Why was she here? Chilsung took an abrupt step toward the dining room, but Inwoo stopped him from going in.

“Stay out of it for now,” he said quietly.

Chilsung huffed but obeyed.

“Is there anyone around me you haven’t stolen?” Jihoon asked, turning to Dongsik. “I knew it was weird you were at the hospital that time.”

“It’s not like that,” Dongsik said.

“No? Then why are you here?” Jihoon asked the nurse. “This party is for Yook Dongsik, aren’t you here to see him?”

“No, I…” She looked around uncertainly, then faced Jihoon with a hint of a smile. “I was passing by and saw you were here. I’m so glad to see you’re doing well.”

“Really?” Jihoon nodded with a satisfied smirk and started to pace back and forth on the floor. “If you’re on my side, then tell me why he was there that night? Something was definitely off with that.”

The nurse watched him for a moment, clutching the handle of her purse so tightly her knuckles turned white.

“The way I see it,” she said. “Yook Dongsik saved your life.”

Jihoon stopped his pacing.

“What?”

“That night when you left the hospital,” she said, her tone growing more confident, “your condition could have turned very dangerous, but fortunately he brought you back in time, and we were able to treat you without incident.”

The employees started to whisper among themselves. Dongsik looked around.

Inwoo took out his phone to write a quick message.

_Don’t deny it._

“I didn’t…” Dongsik paused to stare at the screen of his phone that was lying on the table in front of him and fell silent.

“Right,” Park Jaeho said. “That sounds like what Dongsik would do.”

“But what kind of condition do you have that was so serious?” the team leader asked.

Everyone turned to look at Jihoon, who seemed uncomfortable about being the center of attention this time. Inwoo cringed inwardly. No matter how stupid Jihoon was, how could he not have realized talking about that night could raise troublesome questions? The nurse looked down at the floor, and Inwoo was certain she was hiding a smile. She definitely had her own bone to pick with Jihoon.

“Just be honest,” Dongsik said, breaking the awkward silence.

Jihoon spun around to face him with gritted teeth.

“You—”

“He has a heart condition,” Dongsik went on, calmly looking Jihoon in the eye. “But I’m sure it will be fine now that he’s getting proper treatment.”

Jihoon breathed out slowly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Well, that can happen even if you’re young and healthy,” Team Leader Gong said, and the employees took the cue to agree, even if it was evident they weren’t quite convinced by the story.

Beside Inwoo, Chilsung scoffed quietly.

“He should have told them the truth.”

Inwoo shook his head.

“My father would destroy him. But he could have kept him squirming a bit longer.”

“But… sir?” Jaeho addressed Jihoon meekly. “Why are you so upset with Dongsik if he helped you like that?”

Inwoo narrowed his eyes. That was an uncharacteristically bold thing from Park Jaeho to ask. Was it a shred of loyalty for Dongsik over their so-called friendship, or was he trying to kick both of them under the bus? Everyone’s eyes were on Jihoon again, who looked around uneasily.

Suddenly Jihoon stopped, his eyes fixed on the window to the street. Curious about what had distracted him, Inwoo moved to take a look at the parking lot through the small window in the kitchen. Three black cars drove in, to a neat and ominous line.

In the dining room, Jihoon let out a very fake laugh.

“That’s what I’m saying. I bet you didn’t know Yook Dongsik would do even something like that.”

Inwoo returned to the kitchen entryway to see Jihoon walk to Dongsik’s side, clasp his hand on his shoulder, and lean to whisper something in his ear.

“I couldn’t let him leave the company without everyone hearing about that,” Jihoon said, turning to the bewildered employees. His hand rested on Dongsik’s shoulder like they were the closest of friends.

“What got into him now?” Chilsung asked.

“The one he fears the most is here,” Inwoo said. It was almost absurd for his father to show up to an event like this, but he had to be sick to death of only hearing about Jihoon’s antics secondhand. And Jihoon, Inwoo realized, knew nothing about his father having met with Dongsik. To him, Dongsik was still only someone with information he wouldn’t want his father to know. It was ignorance Inwoo would make full use of.

“You stay here,” Inwoo said to Chilsung, and then walked into the dining room.

“Director Seo!” The relief was so strong in Team Leader Gong’s voice when he saw Inwoo, it almost sounded like he might burst into tears.

“Why is the mood so stiff?” Inwoo smiled. “The food is going to waste.”

“Right!” The team leader encouraged the other employees to get seated. “Let’s eat and drink, that’s why we’re here!”

Inwoo guided the nurse, who had quietly moved to the side, toward one table. She had the sense to sit down without needing any further explanation.

“Why are you here?” Jihoon asked sullenly when Inwoo went over to him.

“Isn’t that my job?” Inwoo said in a low voice. “Father has been very stressed out lately. Since you chose this path, stick to it like your life depends on that.”

Jihoon swallowed.

“Sit.” He patted Dongsik’s shoulder stiffly. “I’ll pour you a drink.” It sounded more like a threat than a friendly offer, but Inwoo was satisfied. Tense and desperate was exactly how he wanted Jihoon to be.

Inwoo moved to Dongsik’s other side, his hand brushing across Dongsik’s lower back.

“Did you dress up for me?” he whispered so quietly only Dongsik could hear. It wasn’t _solely_ to make Dongsik more relaxed and genuinely smiling when Inwoo’s father walked in, but it worked quite well for that.

It was only a matter of seconds, but when the employees rose to greet their chairman, it would have been hard to believe anything was wrong with the picture at all.

“Father!” Faking cheerfulness, Jihoon got up from beside Dongsik but quickly turned meek under his father’s stern glare. “What brings even you here?”

“I should ask you the same.”

“Uh, well,” Jihoon said, “just taking care of company matters, and… stuff.”

Inwoo watched his father survey the dining room without even a muscle moving on his face. There was nothing out of line, and it had to be driving the old man mad.

“I don’t intend to get in the way of the employees’ time out of the office,” Inwoo’s father said with a dour smile. “But I need to borrow Yook Dongsik for a moment.”

He turned around and walked out. Dongsik moved obediently to the door that was kept open by one of the bodyguards.

Inwoo nudged Jihoon sharply.

“Come along.” If his father intended to confront Dongsik alone, he would have to fight for the chance.

With Dongsik in the middle, the three of them lined up out in the parking lot. Inwoo’s father narrowed his eyes and turned to Inwoo.

“There seems to be much going on that I don’t know about.”

Dongsik winced, lowering his head.

“I knew those two had come to some kind of agreement,” Inwoo said evenly, “but it was Jihoon’s matter to handle. Was I supposed to get involved?”

Jihoon perked up.

“And I handled it. On my own.” He nudged Dongsik. “There’s no problem anymore. Right?”

“Yes,” Dongsik said.

Jihoon nodded briskly.

“You handled it?” His father asked, clearly not believing a word of it. “How?”

“Well… there were some misunderstandings that have been cleared, and he’s leaving the company anyway, so…” Jihoon floundered.

“I apologized for not understanding his methods for managing the company’s problems,” Dongsik said helpfully.

“I guess you weren’t made for this line of work,” Jihoon said, patting Dongsik’s shoulder again.

Inwoo could barely stop the satisfied grin as he watched his father clench his jaw. What could he do? Admit that Jihoon was too incompetent to could have possibly done this on his own?

“Go home,” his father said to Jihoon.

Jihoon looked like he wanted to argue, but then obediently handed his car keys over to one of his father’s bodyguards. His father remained quiet, staring ahead stone-faced until Jihoon had stepped into his car.

“How did you get even Jihoon to play along?”

“It was Jihoon who decided to do this. You should ask him about it if you doubt me.” Inwoo turned to Dongsik. “Go back in.”

The reluctance was evident in the way Dongsik turned around, but he didn’t say a word. Inwoo didn’t need to glance back at his father to know that the stone-faced expression was turning to fury. The simple act of Inwoo dismissing Dongsik when his father had called him out wasn’t so much crossing the line as it was denying the existence of the line altogether.

“I told you before—”

“Yes,” Inwoo said, “if he keeps being a problem, I must cut him off. But what problem is there now? Jihoon has settled his feud with him, and he’s leaving the company. Weren’t those the things you wanted? Since he has nothing to do with the company now, if there’s any issue in the future, it will be mine to sort out.”

“This really isn’t like you at all.”

Inwoo said nothing. If his father was truly concerned about that, he shouldn’t forget that nothing was more unlike Inwoo than giving up something that belonged to him.

His father was quiet for a while, then a hint of a callous smile appeared on his lips.

“Very well. This is nothing but a foolish game you will grow bored with in time. Perhaps you will realize that faster if I don’t get in your way.” He nodded at his bodyguards, who moved back to their cars, preparing to leave. “Make sure there will be no gossip about Jihoon’s visit here tonight.”

“Yes,” Inwoo said.

After his father left, Inwoo went back into the restaurant where the mood was now quietly apprehensive. The employees turned to face him. Dongsik barely stopped himself from jumping up from his chair.

“I apologize on behalf of my brother,” Inwoo said. “Please be understanding. He’s having a hard time adjusting to living with his condition. I would like to ask everyone to not talk about this to outsiders. The company’s reputation affects every single employee, as well. There’s no need to let one person make things difficult for everyone, no matter who he is.”

The employees graciously agreed, and Inwoo proceeded to round up the restaurant staff. They got a similar litany of pretty words, along with the assurance that his company would bring them more business in the future.

“Let him eat whatever he wants, too,” Inwoo said to the staff, nodding at Chilsung who was still lingering close to the kitchen entrance.

From the kitchen, Inwoo went out to meet Jihoon’s thugs.

“Jihoon’s gone home, so you can leave as well. If he didn’t pay you yet, I will handle that, but…” Inwoo looked at each of them. “No matter what issue you have with Chilsung’s crew, it would be better for you to let it go.”

They considered his words for a moment, before bowing to him and leaving. Inwoo watched them go. These guys seemed to prioritize money over honor or loyalty or whatever it was Chilsung claimed there was. Which worked very well for Inwoo, as it was better to grasp hold of anyone new on Jihoon’s side as fast as possible, and anyone seeking revenge on Chilsung might get in Dongsik’s way, too.

With everything settled, Inwoo walked to the small garden behind the restaurant and stopped to lean his back on the stone wall that surrounded it. Unsurprisingly, Dongsik appeared by the gate of the garden a moment later. He had watched Inwoo like a hawk when he had gone to the kitchen. Now he stopped a few feet away, looking hesitant.

Inwoo reached out to pull him to his side by his sleeve.

“What are you? I should get used to this already, but it just makes no sense.”

Dongsik gave him a puzzled look, and Inwoo lowered his head, rubbing his temples. Things _had_ turned out fine. But the entire time at the back of Inwoo’s mind had been the nagging thought that he was letting a golden opportunity to cause some serious damage to Jihoon’s reputation slip through his fingers. There had been so many witnesses, and no way to claim Inwoo had anything to do with it. Besides, he had opposed his father in a way that he would generally consider needlessly direct and reckless.

“I don’t want you to meet anyone from my family from now on,” Inwoo said darkly. “Run away rather than even stop to greet them.”

“I don’t particularly want to meet them, either, but why are you saying this so seriously?”

“They’re beneath you. I won’t have you bowing your head to them again. It should be the other way around.” Inwoo lifted his head, turning his eyes to Dongsik. “How much money did Jihoon offer you to save him from his father’s wrath?”

“I think his exact words were ‘a lot’.”

Inwoo sighed. Couldn’t Jihoon even estimate how much his skin was worth to him?

“If anyone comes to ask you about what happened, simply say you’ve promised Jihoon to never talk about it again. Is there a specific sum you want? I’ll make sure you get it.”

“I don’t want his money.”

“Then I’ll figure out a suitable amount myself,” Inwoo said, and Dongsik furrowed his brow. “You have to take it. It’s to let Jihoon know you will hold up your end of the bargain. Even if my father knows the story doesn’t add up at all, as long as Jihoon convincingly claims you’re not a problem anymore, you’re safe.”

With a gloomy face, Dongsik leaned on the wall beside him, hardly looking like someone who had been freed of Jihoon’s harassment and promised a nice sum of money on top of that.

“Your brother is still getting away with everything he’s done without any real consequences.”

“It’s frustrating, isn’t it?” Inwoo said. “He does everything wrong, but he can do no wrong. That’s just the level of protection he has by his royal birthright. As long as the family’s power is on his side, that’s how it’s going to be.”

“There must be a way to change that,” Dongsik said. “Your father can’t control everything.”

“He can control much more than you even realize. It would take Jihoon being accused of something so grave the public wouldn’t forget about it as soon as something more entertaining happens. Like a nice and scandalous murder.”

Dongsik looked thoughtful for a second but then shook his head.

“Someone would have to die for that to happen.”

That was true, but Inwoo could think of many people who would be perfect for that role. People who had clashed with Jihoon over some petty thing in the past and had a bad habit of getting on Inwoo’s nerves.

He realized he had been silent a little too long when Dongsik turned to look at him sharply.

“No,” Dongsik said. “Don’t even think about it.”

“There are a lot of people who don’t really have any reason to keep existing,” Inwoo said. “The kind exactly like Jihoon. Rich heirs who don’t even know how to use the money and power they were born into.”

“No,” Dongsik repeated, a stern look in his eyes.

“Do you think I’m serious?” Inwoo asked.

“Yes.” Dongsik nodded. “I think you’re serious.”

“It’s a little strange how you say that so calmly.”

Dongsik shrugged.

“Do you know how often I hear Chilsung’s gang say they’re going to kill someone?”

Inwoo suspected that wasn’t quite the same thing, but it wasn’t as though he wanted to convince Dongsik otherwise.

Dongsik turned his gaze down, idly kicking at the frosted gravel under his shoes. Inwoo looked away, resting his eyes on the bamboo fountain at the center of the garden. Had Jihoon ruined things after all? The mood was now a little too dark and heavy for how Inwoo had planned for the night to end. And the most Jihoon would face was getting scolded and sent back to his rehab. He definitely deserved worse.

“Remember when I said you might be happier if you gave up on trying to become the successor?” Dongsik asked. “Please forget that. You can’t give up. Your father is bad enough, but the thought of your brother having that power is… terrifying.”

“Don’t you realize that I’ll be worst of them all?”

“Then I must make sure you don’t go overboard.”

Inwoo turned back to him slowly.

“That sounds like a very long-term commitment to make.”

Dongsik lifted his head and glanced at him.

“Right,” he said, biting his lip.

Inwoo leaned his head against the wall.

“You don’t think this is a game I will grow bored with in time?”

Dongsik was quiet for a moment. Then he took two steps away from the wall and turned back to face Inwoo.

“I think I’ve been too nice to you lately. You’re getting the wrong idea.” Dongsik smiled wryly. “Bored? You’ll wish you get a chance of that.”

Inwoo blinked, tilting his head.

“What?”

“Get back to work, Director.” Dongsik turned to walk back to the gate. “The employees will wonder where you are.”

“Are you giving _me_ orders now?”

“Yes! What are you going to do about it?”

Inwoo watched his back in disbelief for a second before following him. Dongsik _had_ been suspiciously well-behaved as of late. Inwoo had almost forgotten how brazen and willful he got when the mood struck him. It was lucky for Dongsik he ran into Park Jaeho and Team Leader Gong outside the restaurant before Inwoo could catch up with him.

“There you are!” the team leader said. “We wondered if something was wrong.”

“Everything is fine,” Dongsik said brightly. “Director Seo doesn’t want to let me go, that’s all.”

Inwoo smiled at the others as he walked up to them.

“I suppose it might be better this way, after all. It seems Dongsik’s ambitions reach _much_ higher than I had thought.” Inwoo turned to Jaeho. “As his friend maybe you can advise him to not try to bite off more than he can chew.”

Jaeho blinked and looked at Dongsik.

“You haven’t told me anything about your plans. What are you trying to bite?”

“Oh, I…” Dongsik cleared his throat. “That might be something the director is hoping.”

Jaeho and the team leader turned to look at Inwoo, who only barely managed to keep his expression neutral.

“Why don’t we go back in,” Inwoo said, still smiling. “It’s chilly out here.” As the others turned away, Inwoo glared at Dongsik’s triumphant face behind their backs. It wasn’t that he was admitting defeat. He was only cooling things off before something caught fire.

For about an hour Inwoo had the patience to keep playing the nice boss. By then the employees seemed to have forgotten about the earlier disturbance to the point that the mood had turned relaxed and everyone was talking about something other than work.

Inwoo had kept his distance from Dongsik, who was getting far too distracting. He was doing nothing out of ordinary, but everything he did kept pushing Inwoo’s buttons. Now Inwoo made his way discreetly to his side, sitting as close as he could without being too obvious.

“I thought you were avoiding me,” Dongsik said quietly.

“So you could cool down your head.”

“Me? Not you?”

Inwoo was briefly distracted by two people out on the street in front of the restaurant. They were standing close to each other, holding hands, of which there was nothing noteworthy about, except for the fact that those two people were Chilsung and the nurse.

“How are those two together?”

Dongsik glanced out of the window.

“Didn’t Chilsung tell you? You interrupted their first date. Good thing she’s persistent enough that she came to see where he’d run off to.”

Frowning, Inwoo turned back to Dongsik.

“She called him shady.”

“First impressions aren’t always right.” Dongsik gave Inwoo a meaningful look. “Or even second impressions.”

Inwoo watched as Chilsung and the nurse walked away. Snowflakes started to fall around them as if they were filming some corny movie.

It had happened again. The nurse showing up had turned the tide for Dongsik. And that had been because Chilsung had come by, which had happened because Inwoo had called him over. A seemingly random chain of events, and things turned miraculously fine for Dongsik. But that couldn’t always be the case, or getting mixed up in Jihoon’s mess wouldn’t have driven Dongsik to such despair. Was it something that only worked when Inwoo was involved?

Inwoo turned away from the window. This train of thought was starting to sound like superstitious nonsense. It was nothing but a matter of perception. Trying to assign significance to such events made it seem like there was some meaning where there wasn’t. Rather than waste time thinking about that, he should focus on what he could control.

Beside him, Dongsik poured a drink to the team leader who was sitting across the table. As soon as he leaned back in his chair, Inwoo shifted a little closer and sought Dongsik’s hand into his own under the table. Dongsik gave him a startled glance but then turned his face down to hide the smile he couldn’t stop. The expression was quite adorable, but since Dongsik had been the one to start playing games, Inwoo was determined to knock him off balance while he thought he had the upper hand.

“My first impression of you was exactly right,” Inwoo said. “Ridiculous things happen around you, you can’t look after yourself, and you stick to me like glue.”

Dongsik raised his eyes to Inwoo’s, the smile turning to a disgruntled glare.

“And the only thing I can do,” Inwoo continued more softly, his thumb caressing the back of Dongsik’s hand, “is to put you safely where you belong.”

Dongsik’s expression softened again, but rather than feeling he was winning this game, Inwoo suddenly felt like he was ten seconds away from kissing Dongsik without care for where they were.

“Should we just get out of here?” Dongsik asked quietly.

“It would be rude to leave your own farewell party so early.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

Inwoo nodded.

“I’ll get the car.”

Inwoo didn’t owe anyone any explanations, but Dongsik lingered behind for a moment to make up some excuse for having to leave. From his car, Inwoo watched him walk across the snowy parking lot. He really looked good tonight. But was it the suit? Was there actually anything about his appearance that was all that different from usual? Dongsik got into the car, brushing snowflakes off his hair.

“So the corny movie snowfall was actually for you.” Inwoo smiled at Dongsik’s puzzled expression. “Where do you want to go?”

“Are you saying you haven’t already planned everything?” Dongsik asked.

Still smiling, Inwoo started the car. The night was back on track.

The drive to Inwoo’s place passed with casual chitchat. During the elevator ride to his floor, Inwoo had to keep reminding himself of the presence of the CCTV. In his apartment, Dongsik barely had time to take off his shoes, before Inwoo wrapped his arms around him from behind.

“You may have been right,” Inwoo said, smoothly loosening Dongsik’s tie with one hand, while the other pressed him tightly against his body.

“About what?”

“The biting.” Inwoo unbuttoned Dongsik’s shirt just enough to get his hand under the collar. He ran his fingers up the side of Dongsik’s neck, his thumb guiding Dongsik’s face to turn toward him. Dongsik leaned against him, clearly expecting something, but Inwoo only brushed his lips lightly against his cheek before letting him go.

“Do you want a drink?” Inwoo took off his coat and threw it on the sofa while he walked toward the kitchen. He hadn’t taken many steps before Dongsik caught him by the arm and turned him around.

“Later.” Dongsik stepped closer, and then his mouth was on Inwoo’s, in a kiss that was so full of yearning Inwoo didn’t need to keep guessing if he was the only one who had been growing frustrated.

“How much later?” Inwoo asked breathlessly when he got a chance. “In the morning?”

“That sounds good.”

With his fingers slowly undoing Inwoo’s tie, Dongsik kept kissing him while Inwoo guided him toward the bed, helping Dongsik lose his coat in the process. They were skipping over a few steps of Inwoo’s plan, but perhaps the only plan that reliably worked with Dongsik was to give him an incentive to go after what he wanted.

But if Dongsik thought Inwoo would simply let him keep calling the shots like this, he was about to be… well, not _disappointed_ … but in for a very sweet kind of reality check.

Inwoo pulled him down on the bed and then in one swift motion had him trapped on his back under him. For a brief moment, Dongsik blinked up at him in wide-eyed surprise. Then he relaxed. Or relaxed as much as it was possible with the way his heart seemed to be racing.

“After all the trouble you’ve put me through,” Inwoo murmured, slowly running his fingers through Dongsik’s hair, “don’t think you can get what you want that easily.”

Dongsik pulled him closer by his collar. Something dark and wild was growing in his eyes, exactly what Inwoo wanted to see.

“Do you think I’ve had an easy time because of you?”

“So?” Inwoo leaned over so that his lips were brushing against Dongsik’s ear. “What do you want to do about that?” He wasn’t going to let Dongsik play nice. There was no doubt that the side Dongsik used to go after his enemies had originally been for Inwoo. He would make it his again, along with everything else.

Only in a much more pleasurable way.

Pulling his collar out of the way, Inwoo kissed down Dongsik’s neck until it felt warm under his tongue. Softly, he bit into the skin. With a sharp intake of breath, Dongsik tensed under him. His fingers were gripping the back of Inwoo’s neck. Like a silent command. Inwoo smiled.

How much of this was a game? Was he himself sure? That this wouldn’t break the magic that had kept him under Dongsik’s spell all this time? That finally getting what he wanted wouldn’t cause him to lose interest? After all, there had never been a person who had kept him fascinated for more than a fleeting moment.

Dongsik leaned his head closer, sliding his fingers into Inwoo’s hair, overloading his senses with how hot he felt, and how he was breathing, and how his heart was pounding in his chest.

It was too late to back out now.


	19. Chapter 19

_ One year later… _

Early winter evening sun filtered through the bars on the window in the prison visiting room. Inwoo squinted at the brightness of the light, leaning back in his chair while he waited for the reason he was here to drag his feet along the corridor. Nam Sung Chul entered the room and gave him a blank look, before slouching down into the chair in front of him.

“I heard you got in trouble with some fellow inmates,” Inwoo said.

“So?”

“They’ve been given a warning, but if they continue to be a problem, they can be moved somewhere they won’t bother you. Also, I’ll arrange a proper doctor for your upcoming health check-up.”

Nam Sung Chul narrowed his eyes. He leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table in front of him.

“Did you finally realize you made a mistake? Right, if you get me out of here—”

“No.” Inwoo leaned closer as well. “I want you to live a long, healthy life because you are never getting out.”

Nam Sung Chul jumped up from his chair, earning a harsh glare from the prison guard. Inwoo remained seated, smiling calmly until Nam Sung Chul sat back down. Seeing him hopelessly trapped like this was perhaps even more fun than killing him off.

“Be sure to tell the doctor anything that’s troubling you,” Inwoo said. “But don’t even dream of faking some illness in an attempt to escape. He’ll be onto any trick you can think of.”

Inwoo got up, turning to leave.

“Sure, it’s easy to be cocky while you’re out there,” Nam Sung Chul said, and Inwoo turned back to find him sneering. “But I hear stuff in here, too. I’m a bit invested in knowing how you’re doing, you see.”

“And?”

“The rumor has it that some sensitive files were stolen from your company. And it was done by that really crazy one, Yook Dongsik.”

“Yes,” Inwoo said impassively, “that was a terrible thing to do.”

Leaving Nam Sung Chul gnashing his teeth, Inwoo walked out to the sunny evening. At his car, he turned back to look at the crude prison building.

What was it Dongsik had said long ago? That Inwoo would hate it in prison? Of course, for that to happen, someone would first have to succeed at putting him in there, and how likely was that? Not very. Perhaps he’d go as far as to say it was outright impossible. Although, there _was_ the really crazy one, Yook Dongsik, who wouldn’t let go once he bit into something.

Inwoo drove to the office, stopping to check his appearance in the mirror before heading to the conference room. The board of directors was gathered to discuss the PR nightmare the company was in danger of drifting into because of the stolen files. Inwoo’s timing was impeccable. He was conveniently late enough to make it seem like he had rushed in after defusing the situation in the nick of time.

His father gave him a disapproving glance when he stepped into the conference room. Jihoon, who was nervously fidgeting with a pen, looked at him with suspicion. Inwoo ignored both, greeting everyone politely.

“Where have you been?” his father asked.

“In an hour,” Inwoo said, “the journalist who first leaked the information about the files will issue an apology, acknowledging that he never actually saw those files and can’t even confirm they exist. The other news sources that jumped on the story may try to investigate more, but that won’t be a problem, as there will be nothing for them to find.”

A murmur of approval filled the room.

“But the original informant,” one of the board members said, “was it really this… Yook Dongsik?” He glanced at the file in front of him.

“That’s a possibility,” Inwoo said. “But the journalist claims to have met with the informant in person, and it appears Yook Dongsik wasn’t even in Seoul at that time. Most likely they wouldn’t dare to use their own name, anyway. It could be someone who knows that digging into that name in connection with Seo Jihoon would bring back to light something else.”

“Something else?” The board member who had spoken frowned, and the one sitting next to him leaned closer to him to whisper something quietly. There was no need to say these things out loud. What the employees gossiped about always eventually reached up to the ears of the board.

Jihoon set his pen down on the table, but his shaking hands caused it to fall over the edge. The sharp sound of the pen clattering to the floor echoed in the room. His father gave him a furious glare.

“Since the name of the informant was never attached to the news articles and has only been going around as a rumor, it’s not a big concern,” Inwoo went on. “We will of course continue to do everything necessary to protect Jihoon’s privacy, and I will investigate everyone who might hold a grudge against him, but… that could take a while.”

“Very well,” Inwoo’s father said. “Let’s see how this turns out.” He rose to leave but was interrupted by another board member speaking up.

“There is another matter we should start discussing. Should we support someone who could mar the company’s reputation as a successor, when there are other options?”

Jihoon looked around, blinking. Inwoo kept his face neutral. It was nice to be working with such sensible people for a change. He hadn’t even needed to hint at the topic.

His father sat back down.

“You two,” he said tensely, “get out.”

Inwoo walked calmly out of the room, followed by Jihoon who brushed rudely past him. Jihoon stopped out in the hallway, frantically ruffling his hair, his one single brain cell evidently hard at work. He spun around to face Inwoo.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

Inwoo smiled softly.

Jihoon gave him a contemptuous look, taking a step closer.

“I knew you’re crazy but—”

“That’s right.” The smile faded from Inwoo’s face, giving way to an expression void of any emotion. “So don’t forget now. How far I will go.”

Inwoo took a step closer, in turn, satisfied as Jihoon backed away.

“It’s a simple choice for you,” Inwoo said. “I can let you have everything you want except for the company. _Or_ …”

“Or what?” Jihoon said derisively, but couldn’t keep his voice from shaking. “You think you can do something to me?”

“I don’t need to. This is only the tip of the iceberg. If I want, I can take apart the entire company. And along with it, your comfortable life and all that’s protecting you. I will burn even the ground from under your feet. So, which will it be?”

Jihoon took another uncertain step back, then he turned around and walked away. Inwoo smiled coldly, watching him go.

As the board members came out of the conference room a moment later, Inwoo turned to greet them. His father was the last one to exit. He glanced around the hallway, noting Jihoon had left. That was a statement in itself.

“How many of them have you brought to your side already?”

“Enough,” Inwoo said.

His father glanced at him with raised eyebrows.

“That must be the case if you’re openly admitting it.” He looked away. “You know I can’t have Jihoon working under you.”

“Yes.”

“Figure that out, then. Where to put him that suits his status.”

Inwoo’s father gave him one last look before walking away. A look that was harsh and haughty, but was there a hint of satisfaction underneath? Inwoo watched his back, unmoved. Perhaps all along his father had wanted to see how cold and ruthless Inwoo could get.

Managing Jihoon wouldn’t be difficult. He only needed to live under the delusion that he was doing fine, in charge of something without actually needing to lift even a finger. Perhaps a restaurant? A properly classy place, though, to keep him more sober than not.

For once, Inwoo’s plans were progressing exactly how he wanted. The company would be moving to the new office building soon, and the only reason for Jihoon to be there would be to congratulate him. Still, Inwoo wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking he had won before everything was truly official.

Deciding he had done enough work done for the day, Inwoo drove away from the office. There was still one more loose end to tie up. For good.

He pulled his car to a stop by an escape room café. A place where, for reasons Inwoo couldn’t understand, people came to get locked up in a small room for fun. Perhaps it helped them forget how trapped they were in their actual lives.

At the moment the place was closed, but the door wasn’t locked. It was quiet inside, and Inwoo proceeded just as quietly, peeking in through the half-open doors.

Only one of the rooms wasn’t empty. Inwoo stopped at the doorway. There it was, that irritating poodle hair, the owner of which was standing with his back to the door, arranging the various crime scene props on the wall, oblivious to Inwoo’s presence.

He had never learned to be on guard. The opportunity was too perfect.

In slow, silent steps, Inwoo made it across the room. He picked up a prop knife from the side table and stepped behind Dongsik, pressing the knife to his throat.

Dongsik grasped the wrist holding the knife with both hands. He wrenched the arm further away, ducking out from under it.

“Let me ask you just one thing,” Dongsik said through gritted teeth, as he twisted Inwoo’s arm behind his back and pushed him roughly against the wall. “Did you even notice I was gone for ten days?”

Inwoo frowned, leaning his other arm on the wall.

“I’m the one who sent you on your vacation. Of course I noticed.”

“No, I mean, what kind of greeting is this supposed to be?”

“The kind that is invested in you learning to protect yourself,” Inwoo said. “Should I send flowers or cake or whatever you want in advance next time?”

“Why?” Dongsik asked, but he was starting to sound amused. “Are you planning to use my name for a dangerous gamble again?” He took the knife from Inwoo’s hand and went to put it back in its place.

“There was no gamble. I knew exactly what I was doing.” Inwoo turned to lean his back on the wall. “Including the fact that my father wouldn’t say a word about you in front of the board of directors.” He rubbed his wrist. Dongsik was definitely more efficient at this when he was properly upset.

Dongsik walked back to him.

“So, it’s all going well?”

“It’s all going well.”

Dongsik stepped closer, and with a deep sigh leaned against Inwoo’s shoulder.

“Were you worried?” Inwoo asked.

“Of course I was. Don’t you know how you’ve been for the past month? Have you even been sleeping?” Dongsik turned his head to look at him. “Yet somehow you’re still this annoyingly handsome.”

Inwoo closed his eyes for a moment, wrapping his arms around Dongsik. He had been gone for ten days. Inwoo had thought he would be far too busy to really even notice that. But even only the brief moments he _had_ noticed had been enough to make it clear that Dongsik not being around was simply unacceptable.

“How was your trip?” he asked.

“The whole time dad wouldn’t shut up about how considerate you are for sending our entire family on a vacation like that.”

“I was considerate. You have a great alibi, and your family didn’t need to hear any wild rumors going around.” Inwoo pushed him further away, then paused, holding Dongsik’s face between his hands. “I have a restaurant reservation. Are you done here soon? It’s a bit of a fancy place, so you need to get changed first.”

“Do I have to put up with pretentious rich people again?”

“No.” Inwoo laughed. “It’s just the two of us. But I want the mood to be right.”

“Give me a minute.”

Inwoo watched Dongsik quietly as he finished up whatever it was he did here. No amount of persuading had worked to get Dongsik to use any of Inwoo’s connections to land a job with some actual chance of career advancement. But perhaps this was for the better. The place was discreet and harmless, and completely outside the radar of Inwoo’s family. His father no doubt kept tabs on Dongsik, but the most this place would do was to leave him confused.

Dongsik switched off the lights and took his coat.

“I went to see Nam Sung Chul earlier,” Inwoo said once they were outside. “He’s doing fine. He hopes you’re happy and healthy.”

Dongsik turned to lock the door behind him.

“Can’t you leave him be? He’s paying for his crime already.”

“Not yet. He still tried to make a deal with me. In case he ever gets out, the first thought in his mind must be how much he hates me. Not you.”

Dongsik stopped in the middle of putting the keys into his pocket, giving him an exasperated look.

“I have to protect you,” Inwoo said. “That’s one thing I won’t negotiate.”

“Fine.” Dongsik stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned away, full of determination. “Then I’ll make sure he gets caught before he gets anywhere near you.”

Dongsik’s phone rang just as they got into Inwoo’s car.

“What is it, _Detective_ Shim Bokyung?” Dongsik listened quietly for a moment. Then he frowned. “Strange how?”

Inwoo sighed. The timing of Dongsik’s weird social circle remained consistently awful.

“Uh, today is a bit…” Dongsik glanced at Inwoo.

Inwoo took the phone from him.

“It’s fine. Text him the address.” He hung up and tossed the phone back to Dongsik.

“Is it really fine? What about the restaurant?”

“There’s no rush. Whatever the strange case is, you’ll let it bother you if you don’t check it out.” Not only did Inwoo not want to later compete for Dongsik’s attention with a case, but getting in the way of things Dongsik wanted to do rarely worked in Inwoo’s favor.

The address sent by Bokyung took them to a location next to a subway exit that hardly saw a quiet moment.

Dongsik looked around as they stopped at the police tape.

“Who would manage to kill someone here in the middle of the day without getting caught?”

From where Inwoo was standing, the chalk line on the pavement was mostly hidden from sight by a thick concrete column. It was possible for it to be a blind spot, but only for about as long as it took for the next train to cause an influx of passengers coming up the stairs. For most of the day, it was a matter of minutes.

“Someone who got ridiculously lucky.” Inwoo leaned to whisper in Dongsik’s ear. “Was it you?”

“Behave,” Dongsik said, swatting Inwoo’s chest softly with the back of his hand.

“Guys,” Bokyung hissed, walking past them. “No flirting on a murder scene, please.”

They followed her past the police tape to the chalk line. Aside from a couple of bored-looking police officers, no one else was on the scene.

“The chief wants me to file it up as a simple robbery gone wrong,” Bokyung said. “The victim’s briefcase is missing, and so is his wallet. But the victim was strangled. Based on the injuries on his wrist, he was wearing a watch while struggling against the perpetrator. And the watch is missing, too. That’s where it gets strange.” Glancing around, she handed the case file over to Dongsik, along with a few photos of the crime scene. Inwoo looked at the photos over Dongsik’s shoulder. A man about in his sixties, an office worker by the look of it.

“If the watch is valuable, isn’t it natural for a thief to take it?” Inwoo asked.

“It is. But considering the time it takes to strangle someone to death, and the clock ticking until a passerby notices something, stopping to remove the watch must require nerves of steel.”

“Oh, I see,” Inwoo said. Clearly she hadn’t gotten her promotion solely by riding on her father’s coattails. The crime seemed to have been carried out with enough skill that Inwoo found himself a bit interested. But with these two on the case, the lucky killer was fast running out of luck.

Bokyung moved away to take a phone call. While Dongsik was focused on the photos, Inwoo looked around. On the other side of the crime scene was an empty office building. He remembered the news about that vaguely. There had been a fire, and afterward, the interior renovations had been stalled for months because no one wanted to pay for it.

With the surrounding traffic masking sounds, it could be possible to strangle someone against the column on the side of the empty building with no one noticing a thing. But daylight robberies were about stealth and distractions, not violently assaulting someone next to a public street. What could be the point of picking this place to kill someone? To show off?

“I need to go rescue the rookie I’m training,” Bokyung said, walking back over to them, and Dongsik returned the file to her. “Let me know if you think of anything.”

“This is so sad,” Dongsik said after she had left. “The victim doesn’t even have any family. He’s been dedicated to his work his entire life and was about to retire in two months.”

“Perfect time to die, then,” Inwoo said. “He has done all he can for his company and won’t go on to be a burden to society.”

Dongsik gave him a disapproving look.

“It is strange, though. The time-frame is so small. Suddenly he was just lying here.”

“Like he fell from the sky.” Inwoo was already growing bored. The sole fascinating aspect to this crime was likely only a fluke. Everything else about it was too mundane.

“No signs on the body that it fell from anywhere.” Nonetheless, Dongsik looked up. He tilted his head. “What’s that up there?”

Inwoo didn’t bother to look. Knowing Dongsik, it was a random lucky detail that helped him put together the puzzle.

“Let’s go take a look at that.” Dongsik pointed vaguely somewhere up and took a step toward the empty office building.

Inwoo stopped him by the scruff of his coat.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Dongsik stopped, taking his phone out of his pocket. He gave Bokyung a call.

“We’re going to take a look at the office building next to the crime scene. Starting from the second floor.” He ended the call. “Why do you still want me to do this even if you’re here with me?”

“I want you to make such a strong habit of it that you’ll do it without thinking.” Inwoo walked after Dongsik, who headed toward the building again. “Even if you fall and hit your head and lose your memories.”

“Does that ever actually happen?”

“To you, it might.”

The entrance to the building was around the corner, which was perhaps why the police hadn’t come to check it yet. The lock on the door had been broken. But it wasn’t newly done damage, the marks around it were already weathered. Dongsik took a few photos of the lock, before carefully pulling the door open, trying not to destroy possible fingerprints.

After the door closed behind them, shutting out the sound of the traffic, the two of them found themselves surrounded by a silence that in the heart of the city like this was almost eerie. Climbing up the staircase, their footsteps seemed to have an unnatural echo. At the first landing, something small and furry darted away along the corridor to the left.

“Was that a cat?” Dongsik said in a hushed tone. “It must be stray.” He tried to see where the cat had gone.

Inwoo pulled him back to the stairs.

“No, you’re not picking up a stray cat.”

“I think you’d get along with cats.” Dongsik continued up the stairs ahead of Inwoo. “They like to sit in high places and hiss at people, just like you.”

“That must be why you must have one,” Inwoo said, glaring at his back.

“You’re not getting jealous over a cat, right?” Dongsik glanced back at him, amused. “You know, your possessiveness goes a bit overboard sometimes. I know your father has made you fight for everything, but a cat wouldn’t steal me from you.”

“I just don’t want cat hair on my suits.” Still, Inwoo couldn’t resist possessively, and completely unnecessarily, running his hand up Dongsik’s back and all the way to the back of his neck as he stepped past him to the next landing. Dongsik looked away, smiling.

They found the room Dongsik had wanted to take a look at, or more precisely, the window. The glass had probably exploded in the fire, and the plastic that had been used to cover the hole had been neatly sliced open. The thing that had caught Dongsik’s attention, though, was the bit of orange rope dangling out of the window.

“There were odd marks on the victim’s clothes, like something had chafed them.” Using the flashlight on his phone, Dongsik looked around the almost dark room. “It’s pretty weird, but… I think the body was lowered down from here. With this.” He shone the light on the construction worker’s safety harness that was lying on the dusty floor. The dust had been recently disturbed.

“Nice,” Inwoo said. “Can we go now?”

“But why?” Dongsik asked, evidently not hearing Inwoo at all. “The body would have been hidden here. Why move it out in the open? This isn’t something anyone could do alone, right? Someone had to be on the ground to help. And why would the victim have come here in the first place?” Dongsik took photos of everything he found relevant while he rambled on.

Inwoo closed his eyes, leaning on the wall beside him. The downside of an interesting crime was that it was interesting to Dongsik, too.

“Let’s look around a bit more.” Dongsik brushed past Inwoo back to the hallway, pulling him along by the lapel of his coat.

As Dongsik stepped into another room further down the hallway, Inwoo texted Bokyung behind his back to inform her they may have found the original crime scene. Hopefully, she would hurry over and tell Dongsik to come back the next day after the police had done their official investigation.

“Someone’s been here,” Dongsik whispered.

Inwoo froze for a split second at the unmistakable sound of a butterfly knife being flipped behind him. Cursing silently for letting himself get too distracted to pay attention to their surroundings, Inwoo moved closer to Dongsik, slowly turning around.

Someone switched on a lamp in the corner of the room. In the faint light, Inwoo could make out one person crouched down in the corner. Another one walked into the room, moving to stand close to the first.

Inwoo focused on the third one, the one flipping the butterfly knife, who stopped at the doorway. He handled the knife with enough skill to at least be a danger to Dongsik.

“Don’t do anything rash,” Dongsik said, and Inwoo wasn’t sure who that was directed at. “You’re not who we’re looking for, and we have nothing you want.”

The person crouching by the lamp laughed. A woman’s laughter.

“I don’t know about you,” she said, “but judging by the clothes on this other guy, he must have some money on him.”

“The clothes are fake of course.” Dongsik took half a step forward, pushing Inwoo behind his back. “Would he be here with me if he could really afford things like this?” He nudged at Inwoo’s sleeve.

Inwoo knew this was more for the protection of everyone other than Inwoo himself. Dongsik was right to be cautious, too. Now that Inwoo realized one of the men had moved closer to protect the woman of the group, that made her the most valuable target. People acted stupidly when something they valued was threatened.

“Won’t hurt to check, though,” the knife-wielding guy at the doorway said, in a harsh, raspy tone.

“Won’t hurt?” Dongsik gave the knife a tired glance and then looked at its owner in the eyes. “I handle people much scarier than you every day, so if _you_ don’t want to hurt, _back off_.”

Knife guy blinked.

Inwoo licked his lips, almost on instinct moving a little closer to Dongsik. He really needed Dongsik to stop doing this when there were other people around.

“You know about the man who died here, right?” Dongsik said.

The three didn’t reply.

“I’m pretty sure you didn’t kill him,” Dongsik went on, “but did you move him down to the street? Makes sense if you did. Who would want to keep a corpse as a next-door neighbor?”

“I don’t know,” the woman said, stretching her neck, “I can’t really remember.”

“Besides you, there’s one person who would know for sure,” Dongsik said, ignoring the obvious prompt for bringing money to the negotiation. “The killer. He must wonder how that happened. And if whoever moved the body saw something.”

The three looked uneasily at one another. Inwoo had to agree with Dongsik’s assessment. For all their posturing, they weren’t killer material at all.

“Dongsik?” Bokyung’s voice came from somewhere in the hallway. “Are you here?”

“It’s that cop lady.” Knife guy slipped his knife into his pocket. The other two stared at the doorway.

“You don’t need to worry,” Dongsik said. “Right now, the worst you’ve done is get in the way of the investigation. Tell her what you know. It’s safer for you if the killer gets caught fast.”

Inwoo raised his eyebrows slightly. That was such a pretty picture, and completely ignoring the several other crimes obviously being committed here. He would have bet money on the fact that the dead man’s missing property was in the hands of these three. But that was for Bokyung to figure out. Dongsik didn’t need to start pondering the motive of a killer who left all valuables behind. Not tonight.

The woman stood up, and knife guy moved closer to the others. Bokyung, along with her partner and another police officer, showed up in the doorway.

“They have some information about the case,” Dongsik said to Bokyung.

“Get their statement.” Bokyung nodded at her partner. “You two, come over here.”

Inwoo followed Dongsik to the hallway.

“Are you okay?” Bokyung asked, glancing suspiciously in the direction of the room.

“Yes.” Dongsik nodded, taking out his phone. “We’re fine.”

“No,” Inwoo said with feigned distress, causing Dongsik to look up from his phone with a baffled expression. “This has been… very upsetting. You can send her the photos later. Let’s go.”

Leaving confused Bokyung behind, Inwoo dragged Dongsik along to the staircase. At the floor below, Inwoo pulled him around the corner to the nonfunctional elevator landing. He spun around to face him.

“My clothes are fake?”

Dongsik gave him a completely unsympathetic look.

“Was that what upset you?”

“Those scary people you handle every day,” Inwoo said, taking a step toward him, “that wouldn’t mean me, right?”

“You know I was just saying that.”

Inwoo pulled him closer.

“You know what it does to me when you act like that,” he said softly.

Dongsik chuckled, leaning his forehead on Inwoo’s shoulder.

“Okay.” He raised his head to look at Inwoo with eyes full of warmth. “We’ve done our part for now. Let’s go.”

“What’s the hurry?” One arm around Dongsik’s back and the other hand behind his head, Inwoo pushed him against the wall. “This spot is quite nice.”

“Are you serious?” Dongsik blinked. “There’s all those people—”

“Yook Dongsik.” Inwoo moved even closer until he could almost feel Dongsik’s heartbeat. “What are you playing at now? I know you like to act all nice and good to others, but it’s not like I don’t know… how you like playing with dangerous things.”

“Is that something you can say?” Dongsik said quietly, his arms sliding around Inwoo’s neck.

“I’m not saying we’re not the same.”

Dongsik smiled and pulled him into a deep kiss. It was obvious he had been craving this. A lot. Maybe the plan should have been to go to the restaurant the day after. They had ten days’ worth of distance to make up for.

Things were just getting good, with Inwoo working his hands all the way under Dongsik’s t-shirt, when they were startled by the sound of something metallic clattering to the floor. In an instant, Dongsik’s hands were on Inwoo’s chest to push him away, but then he breathed out slowly, looking over Inwoo’s shoulder.

“It’s the cat.”

Inwoo smiled as Dongsik leaned against him, trying to catch his breath. He smoothed out Dongsik’s clothes. This was a good mood to continue later.

“There’s a kitten, too.” Now Dongsik really pushed Inwoo away, to pick up something that was cowering in the corner. “How young are you to be so small? What happened to your ear?”

Inwoo gave the creature a dubious look. Was it even a kitten? With the notch in its right ear, and the overall scruffiness, it mostly resembled some kind of gremlin.

“There’s another one. Hold this.” Dongsik plopped the kitten into Inwoo’s hands.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Inwoo tried to hold the thing as far away from himself as he could.

“Just hold it, I’ll find a box or something.”

Inwoo scowled at him.

“What for?”

“We can’t leave them here. The nights are getting cold, and they’re so young. It’s dangerous.”

“Did I say something about not picking up stray cats?”

“I’m not planning to keep them. I know three…” Dongsik paused as he looked around the corner. “Uh, _five_ cats is too much. We’ll take them to an animal shelter.”

The kitten squirmed in Inwoo’s grasp, forcing him to pull it closer to his chest so that he wouldn’t drop it. Even if cats were supposedly great at falling, Dongsik would never let that go.

Dongsik found a large plastic box and lifted the three other kittens along with their mother into it. Finally, he tried to take the scruffy kitten from Inwoo, but it dug its tiny claws into the lapel of Inwoo’s coat and mewed sadly.

Dongsik looked at the kitten for a moment, chewing on his lip, and then gave Inwoo a look he clearly knew he couldn’t say no to.

“Maybe it won’t be so scared once we get to the car.” He covered the box with his scarf.

Inwoo glared at the kitten as he carried it down the stairs. He was certain fear was not why it was clinging to him. To treat such an expensive coat this way surely took a pure force of evil. No doubt the ear, too, had resulted from picking a fight with some beast living in the building.

“Shame about that ear,” Dongsik said, looking at the kitten as they walked past the police tape. “It will make it harder for it to find a home. People can be so picky. I wonder if Chilsung would like a cat?”

“Can he even look after himself?” Inwoo asked. “Maybe you haven’t heard yet since you were away, but he got fired again. He should have stuck to terrorizing people, his face is perfect for that.”

“He’s trying his best to turn a new leaf for the sake of his girlfriend.”

“Isn’t it because it hurts his pride that she makes more money than he does?”

Once they reached Inwoo’s car, the kitten finally agreed to let go. Fortunately. Inwoo suspected that if an argument started about who should keep the coat, Dongsik would side with the cat. Dongsik put the kitten into the box with the others, carefully covering it with his scarf again.

“I’ll call a shelter I know.” Dongsik set the box down on the passenger’s seat. “I donated them all the money you forced me to take from your brother, so they’ll probably want to help me.”

“So that’s where the money went. Ask them if they’ll take Jihoon in, too.”

Inwoo eyed the box of cats sternly while Dongsik was out on the phone. None had better try to climb on the seats. With these, it wasn’t only the hair. They were full of dust and soot and who knew what else.

After a few minutes, Dongsik got into the car, lifting the box on his lap.

“The shelter says to bring them in the morning. I’ll keep them at my place overnight.” He put on his seatbelt. Then he paused, turning to Inwoo. “Oh. The restaurant.”

“I doubt they have a menu for cats.” Inwoo started the car and drove off to the street. Should he chalk this up as a failed experiment? Trying to go with the flow with Dongsik didn’t lead to his plans working out. It only led to five cats.

“Let’s take them to my place first. After that… oh, I think they need food. What do the kittens even eat?” Dongsik looked at Inwoo. “Well, it may take some time, but after—”

“Forget it.”

“It’s just one table reservation.” Dongsik sounded apologetic. “We can do that some other day.”

“Not one table,” Inwoo said. “It’s the whole restaurant.”

“What for?” Dongsik asked, now confused. “You said you won’t celebrate until everything is official.”

“There was something I wanted to ask you.”

“What would you want to ask the requires reserving a whole restaurant?”

Inwoo stared at the road ahead. The final loose end to tie up. Did he need the restaurant for that? These things should be made somehow special. Though nothing made it more special than that it was Inwoo who was asking it.

“Isn’t it too much hassle to keep going back and forth between two apartments?”

“What do you mean?” Dongsik asked, distractedly adjusting the scarf over the box.

“I went to look at a few apartments while you were away. A location that’s both a convenient distance from the new office and makes it easy for you to get wherever you need to go. Neighbors that understand the concept of privacy. Excellent security. Enough space that we won’t drive each other crazy.”

Finally, the words seemed to sink in. Dongsik turned to look at him.

“ _What?_ ”

“Though I didn’t consider space for five cats.”

“Are you serious?” Dongsik asked. “Not about the cats, but… are you talking about us living together?”

“Yes.” Inwoo bit back his more sarcastic reply. It wasn’t that Dongsik was being stupid. He needed time to process this. “Take your time to think about it. If it was an easy decision to make, it would be something meaningless.”

“Okay.” Dongsik sounded dazed. “I… I’ll think about it.”

Inwoo glanced at him.

“Maybe it’s better I didn’t ask this in the restaurant. You’re so out of it, even a fork would be dangerous in your hands right now.”

Dongsik laughed, hanging his head.

“I won’t change my mind,” Inwoo said. “Everything is better when you’re around.”

While stopping at a red light, Inwoo watched as Dongsik scratched the evil notch-eared kitten under its chin. He’d said a cat wouldn’t steal him. This one was definitely stealing him.

Inwoo turned his attention back to the traffic lights. _One_ cat? Maybe he could live with that. Was it too ridiculous to have a room for a cat to keep the hair from getting everywhere?

“See if there’s a vet clinic that’s still open,” Inwoo said. “Don’t they need some shots or something like that? And you need to know what to feed them.”

Dongsik looked up a clinic on his phone and gave Inwoo the address.

“I’m sorry about the restaurant,” Dongsik said when Inwoo pulled over by the clinic.

Inwoo shrugged.

“The restaurant was for you. I can eat there whenever I want.”

For a moment, Dongsik kept sitting still, moving his hands slowly around the box. Then he turned to look at Inwoo, meeting his eyes with an expression that was both tender and serious at once.

“I love you.” With that, he got out of the car.

He did not say that often. Inwoo had figured it was something for moments when Dongsik wanted to say something special, but couldn’t think of a more specific expression. He never expected Inwoo to say anything back.

Smiling faintly, Inwoo followed him to the door of the clinic. He opened the door for Dongsik, guiding him in with his hand on his back. It wasn’t that he needed help. But no matter how much Dongsik expected nothing back, it was a given he needed to get something.

For a long time, Inwoo had known for a fact that love was not something he could feel.

And yet, if there was a word for what every day with Dongsik was… maybe that was what it was.

Love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, it ended?
> 
> When I started this, I didn't know I was going to write and whole damn novel-sized fic. Meanwhile the world went crazy, which got in the way of writing a lot, but writing this also helped me stay sane in the middle of everything.
> 
> A million thank yous to everyone who has been reading, and especially commenting. I'm sorry I didn't always have the time and mental energy to reply to all the comments, but I read them all, several times, and they all made me genuinely happy <3
> 
> Thank you!


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